(TOPEKA, Kan.) - Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, CPA, recently announced that her office's Unclaimed Property department received an award at the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO) national conference held in Phoenix, Arizona. The Holders Choice award was presented for the outstanding design and user-friendliness of the department's www.KansasCash.com website.
"The award was presented to the Kansas program because holders around the country believe our state's unclaimed property website is the easiest to use and information is easily accessible to companies reporting unclaimed property," said Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, CPA.
KansasCash.com has undergone major redesigns in the past few years to make it easier to use for people claiming and reporting unclaimed property. Each year the Kansas Unclaimed Property program receives $12 to $15 million from banks, businesses and organizations that they are holding for Kansans. Additionally nearly 600 lost or forgotten safe deposit boxes are sent to the state when banks can no longer find the owner of the contents.
The reporting of inactive savings and checking accounts, uncashed checks, stock shares and bonds, dividend checks, insurance proceeds, mineral royalties, and utility deposits is required by state law under the Unclaimed Property Act. In total, the State Treasurer's Office has over $190 million worth of unclaimed property and over 8,400 safe deposit box properties on file.
Making a claim is free and easy. There are no fees involved in searching for or claiming cash and property. Kansans may call the State Treasurer's office at 1-800-432-0386 or log onto www.KansasCash.com.
UPPO is an organization representing the needs and addressing issues of companies reporting unclaimed property to the fifty different Unclaimed Property programs in the United States. More information on UPPO can be found at www.uppo.org.
Jenkins, a former State Representative and Senator from Topeka, was re-elected to her second term as Kansas State Treasurer on Nov. 7, 2006. During her time as Treasurer, Jenkins has expanded investment options in Learning Quest and oversaw the re-bidding of the program, returned an average of $9 million a year in unclaimed property to Kansans, initiated multiple financial literacy programs, and eliminated the reliance on state general fund dollars to operate the office. She is a Certified Public Accountant and former small business owner.
