By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
It’s not every day that a man tells you he has $400 million to get rid of, and he needs your help to do it. That happened to me at the State Capitol Feb. 21.
The man was Dennis Milligan, the Arkansas state auditor. The $400 million is the total value of all the unclaimed properties the state is trying to return to its rightful owners through “The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt.”
One in four Arkansans have property in the state’s possession. The auditor’s office has more than a million properties to dispense. The properties come from a variety of sources – an inheritance, a deserted bank account, a safety deposit box that somebody forgot about, etc. If a final paycheck never made it to somebody, banks are obligated to turn the money over to the auditor’s office.
One woman got $1.4 million
“I gave a lady $1.4 million in Hot Springs the other day that her dad had left her through stocks that she didn’t even know about,” he said. “And that’s not the norm, but there’s plenty of $80, $150, $200. And again, it comes from old utility deposits. I’ve got Rolex watches. I’ve got war medals in our vault that again were taken out of safety deposit boxes and ultimately ended up in my hands.”
Milligan said he recently had transferred $70,000 to a sister and two brothers that had come from a deceased uncle they didn’t know had passed away. The day after our encounter, he was giving a Johnson County school district $16,000. A car dealership received $144,000. He’s transferred money to nonprofits.
“It seems to stay around $400 million, but it can be up or down because, again, the well’s getting refreshed every day with these monies,” he said. “So it’s not chump change. The old saying, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ Well, I’m not giving them anything but their money, but I want to give them their money back.”
The auditor is one of seven elected statewide constitutional officers, but I doubt many Arkansans know what the office does. In fact, I had to check. In addition to administering the unclaimed property program, the auditor issues checks on the state’s behalf and processes payroll for more than 700 state elected officials in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. It does this with about 30 employees.
With that size staff, the office can’t personally contact everyone who’s owed money. Spokesperson Stacy Peterson said it sent about 3,000 letters this past year for properties above a certain threshold. Otherwise, it tries to get the word out through various means, including posting newspaper notice.
How to see if you are owed money
Finding out if you are owed money, and then claiming it, is not difficult. Go to www.claimitar.gov. There’s a three minute video where Milligan explains what to do, but you don’t even need that. Just click on the “search” button below “claiming property,” and follow the steps. You can also call the office at 1-800-CLAIMIT (252-4648).
Naturally, I checked to see if I was owed anything. I typed “Brawner” without a first name because there aren’t that many of us – or so I thought – and because sometimes I’m “Steve” and sometimes I’m “Steven.” Four pages of Brawners popped up. I was on two of them – one for a property valued between $50 and $100, and the other for more than $100.
You bet I claimed that money. It turned out I had a $59.95 premium refund from a life insurance company, and $225 from a newspaper chain that no longer needs my services (or a lot of people’s services, unfortunately). I don’t know if I’m going to cash that second check, but I plan to get that $59.95. I have 90 days to complete the claim form.
That will leave Milligan with only $399,999,940.05 to give away. I’m glad I could help.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 16 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.