Widow Is Reunited With Funds

An 82-year-old widow from Tecate, Mexico, and her daughter received a check for $16,438.40 from the state controller’s office Monday--money they didn’t know existed.

The money, which included $6,923.09 in interest, was returned to Rosa Chacon de Ramirez, who spends summers in the home she owns in Chula Vista, and her daughter, Rosa de Zorrilla, as part of the state’s “Claim What’s Yours” program. The program is designed to reunite Californians with more than $650 million in unclaimed property, said Jay Ziegler, spokesman for State Controller Gray Davis.

Much of the money stockpiles in banks because people are beneficiaries in wills they don’t know about, or they forget about previously opened bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and stock certificates.

“The odds are one in 10 that people have some money out there,” Ziegler said.

De Ramirez and her daughter didn’t know about the money because it had been put into a trust fund in the 1960s by De Ramirez’s father-in-law after her husband’s death.

The women found out about the money after an “heir finder” contacted De Ramirez’s son, Joaquim Ramirez, of Chula Vista, who then called the controller’s office, Ziegler said. Independent heir finders track down people to unite them with their money for a finder’s fee.

Since 1987, the state has returned $81 million to 171,000 Californians.

After an account has been dormant for more than five years, banks are required to turn the money over to the state, where it accrues 5% interest annually until someone claims it.

Anyone who thinks they might have unclaimed property should call the state controller’s office at 800-992-4647.