(Part 1 of 2)

The State of Mississippi is home to a few of my favorite things in the world – catfish, sweet potatoes, and rootbeer (invented in Biloxi in 1898). Mississippi's Treasury Dept. has also become home to something that is on the top of my list and I suspect yours also – cash. Mississippi unclaimed money, to be precise. "Nearly 1 in 5 Mississippians have money representing over $38 million that needs to be claimed," stated Mississippi State Treasurer Tate Reeves in a press release recently. This is certainly great news for all of those families that suffered hurricane losses in recent years, and are now dealing with serious setbacks in their financial standing.

When people die or move to a new home, they often forget to leave a forwarding address or a will and this results in lost mail and inheritances. Tax refund checks, financial notices and similar items get returned to the sender (insurance companies, the IRS, banks, etc.). According to Treasurer Reeves, "They are required by state law to turn them over to the Treasurer's Office after a dormancy period. After that dormancy period is over, they turn it over to the state. We put a book out every three years and send it out through various media,".

According to a recent report on NBC's Dateline, a number of lucky Mississippi residents were recently reunited with their forgotten funds and it turned out that it was a pleasant surprise for most of them. A Biloxi, Mississippi resident learned that he had $30,000 from an investment his deceased father didn't tell him about. A couple who had lost all of their possessions to the recent hurricane received $250 thousand from Mississippi unclaimed funds. Another woman who was attempting to rebuild homes for her mother and herself received $100 thousand. Gordon White, was in the middle of building his dream home when Katrina hit and he was forced to live in a trailer, but then got $200,000 from bank stock shares his father had never told him about. One of the largest claims given back so far was to a Vietnam veteran who was forced to retire from his job as a company supervisor due to post-traumatic stress. Turns out that he was owed nearly a million dollars from old company stocks he had forgotten about after retiring from said company.

(to be continued)

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