You may have unclaimed property coming to you. State Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass has been hitting the road since taking office in January of 2005. She visits all 72 counties once a year. “We have over a million property ID numbers, to the tune of about $355 million owed to Wisconsin residents and businesses,” explained Sass. “We take the database out into the public and file claims for them on the spot, and let them know that this is not a scam and there really is money out there.”
On average, $400 per person – but sometimes a lot more, for example this year in Fond du Lac. “A lady came to the library, she was listed in our database twenty times . . . she had almost $103,000 coming back,” Sass said. Last year an Appleton man was reunited with $236,000 and more than 940 shares of stock. Sass said the man had suffered a head injury and had lost track of the assets during his recovery. “It’s usually financial assets. It can be a dormant savings account or checking account,” Sass said. “We do get contents of safety deposit boxes, so we do have some physical things. Coin collections, stamp collections, jewelry, lots of pocket watches.”
Sass, who’s up for reelection this fall (Madison Democrat Dan Bohrad is challenging her in the September primary, and there are three Republicans and a Libertarian registered as well), will have visited 45 counties by the end of next week. “Most people think that I’m part of the Department of Revenue and I take their money and keep asking for more. I always tell people I’m the good sister of government. I actually give money back, and lots of it.”