Treasury Refunds $133,000 in Unclaimed Money to New Orleans Area Residents

Kennedy Says State Will Continue Aggressive Efforts to Return $330 Million to Louisiana Citizens

BATON ROUGE, LA – The Louisiana Department of the Treasury returned $133,000 in missing money to New Orleans area citizens at an Unclaimed Property Awareness Day held at Lakeside Shopping Center this past Saturday, according to State Treasurer John Kennedy.

“This was one of the largest unclaimed property events we’ve ever had,” said Treasurer Kennedy. “We estimate that we had around 3,000 people in attendance over a five hour period. The average unclaimed property claim is typically around $200 to $400, but one individual at the mall claimed more than $20,000.”
Unclaimed property is money in the normal course of business that is presumed abandoned after a certain amount of time. When a business cannot locate an individual the money belongs to, usually because of a wrong address, the money is turned over to the state for safekeeping. Some examples of unclaimed property include savings and checking accounts, uncashed payroll checks, certificates of deposit, stocks and dividends, insurance proceeds, oil and gas royalty payments, utility deposits and similar funds.

Over the past 10 years, Treasurer Kennedy and unclaimed property employees have traveled to shopping malls, community centers and other venues statewide, returning nearly $125 million to nearly 195,000 Louisiana citizens.

“Citizens who filed claims for unclaimed money at Lakeside Shopping Center can expect their checks to arrive in the mail within two to three weeks,” said Treasurer Kennedy. “If you weren’t able to attend the event on Saturday, we strongly encourage you to search for money online at www.latreasury.com or by calling our toll-free hotline at 1-888-925-4127.”

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