Florida residents get warning after possible unclaimed property scam

May 22, 2011

Written by: Melanie Payne on May 18, 2011

Link to Melanie’s consumer watchdog column at News-Press.com

Many people called me last week to say they went to the state of Florida unclaimed property site and found their names. But the site was requiring they pay to make a claim.

If the website is asking for money or credit-card information in order to process your claim, you are on the wrong website.

If you are looking for money in Florida, go to fltreasurehunt.org.

If you’re looking for money in another state, try discoveredmoney.org. Discovered Money, a volunteer-run, nonprofit group, provides free links to all 50 states’ unclaimed property sites.

Discovered Money has also produced five videos on unclaimed property. The videos do a good job of walking you through the process of searching for, finding and making a claim to retrieve your unclaimed property. One video also provides tips on how not to “lose” the property in the first place.

Go to youtube.com and in the search field type “Discovered Money Part 1” to see the first video and then Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 to watch the rest of the series.


John Hancock settles with Florida over annuities

May 22, 2011

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — John Hancock Life Insurance Co. has reached a settlement with Florida insurance regulators resolving a dispute over the way the company handles payments for life insurance beneficiaries.

The agreement announced Wednesday stems from an investigation by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and other state agencies into the Boston insurer’s business practices.

An audit of the company begun in 2009 led state officials to conclude the company isn’t doing enough to make sure that unclaimed benefits, such as life insurance, annuities and deposit account proceeds, are paid to beneficiaries, or after a certain period, turned over to the state, as required by law.

Read the rest at Forbes.com


Tracking Down and Collecting Unclaimed Life Insurance

February 27, 2011
Published: February 25, 2011
Hundreds of millions of dollars in life insurance goes unclaimed each year simply because the beneficiaries do not know the money exists.