【人间烟火】：如何找回隐藏的个人财产
一般来讲，像我这种不善理财的人，不期的损失是随时的。 但是，也常常都有意外的惊喜。
你要是跟我一样，不大识数，但又做不到视金钱如粪土，那我给你推荐个好东西，叫作Search Detective :: Unclaimed Property & Hidden Personal Asset State Directory（含美国各州搜索网站连接）。
举加州为例：California Unclaimed Property Search （加州搜索网站）
打开网页，输入自己的名字，它没准就能帮你搜出长长一张单子，列的尽是你早就忘掉了或者压根没意识到属于你的财产，比如电话公司或者信用卡公司欠你的钱；车行对某特定车型用户作出的赔偿；你也不知道什么时候放出去的债；甚至N多年前美国领事馆欠你的银子。
总之千奇百怪什么都有，不查不知道，一查或许就能吓一跳。
几个月前我知道了这个网站，查了一下，立刻跟无端梦见金元宝似的，对意外之财生出从未有过的幻想。兴高采烈准备了需要的材料，填好表格，寄给政府要钱。
当时其实没抱太大希望，因为许多罗列出来归我所有的项目，看上去特别陌生。只是挑了一打我还模模糊糊有印象曾经打过交道的单位，胡乱对付着交些证明文件，比如帐单驾照什么的。没想到果真被我要了不少钱回来。当然了，有些项目政府管我索要进一步的证明文件，我不记得有过或者已经找不到，所以那钱就要不回来了。不过，即便如此，我也已经感觉自己比司令幸运太多。她平时老是教育我，要学会管理钱财，改掉在投资和理财方面缺心少肺的毛病。现在我发现，她的缺点竟然就是太会理财了！所以她搜索来搜索去，结果却没有发现什么属于自己却尚未认领的财物。
现在我终于体会到成天丢钱那些马大哈们的快乐。老有机会捡钱，尽管捡来捡去也都是自己的钱，那也比没钱可捡感觉爽啊。
为此我特别感谢加州地区这项措施的负责人，加州的财务长官张约翰同学。
这里附封信，是他关于这项举措的一些说明。
祝感兴趣的同学们好运！
For two decades, misguided State laws restricted my office from contacting the owners of what amounted to more than 80% of all unclaimed property accounts sent to the State. In August, that practice ended when the Legislature passed and the Governor signed my reforms that removed the laws, roadblocks and red tape from reuniting Californians with their property.
On October 18, a federal court in
Within the first week of being able to provide notices to owners of their State-held valuables, we sent notices to 99,086 Californians urging them to claim their property. Without the new laws, we would not have been able to send 77,078 of these letters.
Furthermore, our reform efforts re-established a unit that will aggressively find and track down property owners in attempts to reunite them with what rightfully belongs to them. In the first four weeks since our reforms took hold, more than 3,100 owners of lost, forgotten or abandoned property will be returned that would not have happened without long-overdue statutory changes.
I am pleased our reforms both satisfied the court, and coupled with common sense administrative changes, show progress in reuniting rightful owners with their unclaimed property.
I want Californians to know that I am putting them first, and there is much more work to do. I will continue my work to make sure the State is moving quickly to put their property back in their hands where it belongs. I also have sponsored comprehensive reform legislation (SB 919 by Senator Mike Machado) to restore interest paid on claims and impose strict penalties on banks, utility companies and other businesses that fail to comply with the law and notify their customers of unclaimed property they are holding.
There are additional reforms I plan on pursuing. Among the reforms, I seek to cut the time it takes to review and make a determination on property claims in half. Current law provides that most lost or abandoned property transfer to the State after three years of inactivity. I would like to extend this timeframe to provide owners with more time to notify their account holder of their intent to maintain their accounts, while still balancing the impact of holder fees which may draw down the account values. I want to protect owners of safe deposit boxes by prohibiting financial institutions from sending them to the State if the owner has other active accounts.
I remain confident that these measures will greatly improve the unclaimed property law and restore the public’s confidence that their lost property will be safeguarded by the State until Californians claim what is rightfully theirs.
Sincerely,