State Treasurer in Kane County Wednesday to Unveil New I-Cash Outreach Tool

Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford will be in Geneva on Wednesday to reveal the latest technology tool for Illinoisans to help reunite people with their unclaimed cash or other assets.

Rutherford is encouraging Kane County residents to try out this tool at his I-Cash event in the area on Wednesday, May 29. Visitors will determine if the state is holding any money or unclaimed property entitled to them. In fact, 172,184 owners in Kane County have $36,216,632 in unclaimed property. This is according to the January list of unclaimed property holders.

Rutherford will be at the Kane County Treasurer’s Office, 719 South Batavia Ave., Geneva at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 29, along with Kane County Treasurer David Rickert. Rutherford will depart at 10:30 a.m.   

I-Cash staff will be on site from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to help local residents find out if they have unclaimed property.

“People are thrilled to find out they have money just waiting for them through I-Cash,” says Rutherford. “I encourage area residents to come visit me at local I-Cash events for assistance in locating their money or property — plus everyone should make an attempt to review our online database annually so they don’t miss out on money or valuable assets the state is holding for them.”  

The recent rebranding and marketing campaign has dramatically increased the number of searches on the I-Cash (formerly Cash Dash) website and the number of claims filed. In the first month after the launch of I-Cash, the number of web visits increased by 140 percent (69,087 to 165,683), and the number of claims increased by 322 percent (7,506 to 31,703) as compared to the month before.

The treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division’s costs, including staff, computers and travel, are paid for through the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund, and not by tax dollars. 

The I-Cash program helps reunite owners with their unclaimed property. The Unclaimed Property Division has more than $1.7 billion in cash, plus contents from Illinois safe deposit boxes that have been inactive for at least five years. During Rutherford’s second year in office, the program returned $129 million to people who owned those assets. That was an increase of 27 percent over 2011.

The total for 2011, which was Rutherford’s first year in office, was $101 million, a 23 percent increase over the previous year and which marked the first time in history that the treasurer’s office returned more than $100 million to the people who owned those assets.

In the past, the I-Cash program returned about $80 million annually to owners. It’s common for people to lose track of their assets when they move or when loved ones pass away. 

Some examples of unclaimed property currently held by the treasurer’s office include the following:

• Money from inactive savings and checking accounts 
• Unpaid wages or commissions 
• Stocks, bonds and mutual funds 
• Money orders and bill overpayments 
• Paid-up life insurance policies 
• Safe deposit box contents. 

To find out if you have unclaimed property through I-Cash, you can visit the treasurer’s website at www.Treasurer.Il.Gov and follow the I-Cash link. The website is updated weekly to reflect new properties remitted to the office. Additionally, our I-Cash teams conduct regular outreach across the state, place twice-annual notices in newspapers and send direct mail to new single-owner 
claimants with property worth more than $100. You can contact the Unclaimed Property Division by calling 217-785-6998 or emailing info@Icash.Illinois.gov, although searches cannot be completed by telephone.

SOURCE: State Treasurer's Office press release