A $300 billion lost and found: Steve Forbes can afford to turn his back on found money, but can you?

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, August, 1998 by Stephanie Gallagher

Hey, Mr. Forbes, we found some money you misplaced. We're not sure how much, but you have three accounts -- maybe more -- languishing on New York State's list of unclaimed property. You interested? Hello?

Well, maybe the publishing magnate and one-time presidential hopeful Malcolm S. ("Steve") Forbes is too busy to bother with long-lost assets. (He did not respond to several telephone calls.) But you shouldn't be, because state treasuries have custody of $300 billion in unclaimed funds waiting to be reunited with their rightful owners.

How do people lose track of their money? Most commonly, they move and forget to notify previous employers, banks, insurance companies and brokerages. Post-office forwarding orders expire after six months, and after another six months the postal service stops sending address-correction notices. So if a once-a-year, statement goes astray, a bank or other financial institution may not be able to find you again. Other times, people may lose records in a natural disaster, fail to keep paperwork or are unaware that they're the beneficiary of UnCle Joe's IRA.

Or they assume an old investment is worthless. Nancy Doble of Portland, Me., moved eight times in ten years, weeding out paperwork with each move. When a cousin spotted Doble's name in the newspaper on an abandoned-property list, Doble didn't hope for much. "I figured it was interest that had accumulated on an old savings account," Doble says. "I was expecting them to tell me it was $1.26." Instead, she learned that she had abandoned shares of stock worth nearly $2,400.

"I thought the company had gone belly up, so I threw the stock certificates away," Doble says. The company had filed for bankruptcy, but it was acquired, entitling Doble to shares in the new owner. She didn't get back her original $10,000 investment, but within a couple of weeks, Doble had a check for $2,400.

RECLAIMING WHAT'S YOURS. You can contact your state at any time to see if your name appears on its list of abandoned-property owners. About 25 states have databases you can search online (see www. unclaimed .org), but not all the databases are equally comprehensive. "New York has its entire 11-million-name database on the Internet," says Mark Tofal, author of Unclaimed Assets: Money the Government Owes You. "But in Massachusetts you can search only the 15,000 names that were turned over to the state in the last month." Be sure to try different permutations of your name and even the names of deceased relatives (we found accounts for Malcolm Forbes, Malcolm J. Forbes, Malcolm S. Forbes and Malcolm S. Forbes Jr.). At some sites, "you can type in a space after your last name and get a different result," Total says.

If you don't want to leave any stones unturned, you should write to the unclaimed-property agency in every state where you've ever worked, lived or conducted business. You can find addresses in Total's book or on his Web site at www .unclaimedassets.com. Financial institutions are supposed to turn abandoned assets over to the state of your last-known address; but if they have no address for you on record, your money could wind up in the holding company's state of incorporation. To be really thorough, check with states such as Delaware and New York, where a lot of financial companies are incorporated.

The federal government may be holding money for you, too. Last year nearly 100,000 tax refunds were returned to the IRS as undeliverable. If you think you're due a refund, call the agency at 800-829-1040.

Your local social security office is the place to call if you think you've ever missed a benefit check. The Social Security Administration estimates that 165,000 benefit checks never reached their intended recipients last year. (Data used to determine your benefits may be misplaced, too. The agency says that about $200 million in earnings have not been posted to taxpayers' accounts because the names don't match the social security numbers provided by employers. You can check your earnings record by calling 800-772-1213, or by visiting www. ssa.gov.)

Finally, if you had a defined-benefit pension plan at a company that's now defunct, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. may have your pension account. You can search the PBGC database online at http://search .pbgc.gov for pensions that were to be distributed after 1995. For other inquiries, write to the PBGC Pension Search Program, 1200 K St., N.W., Suite 930, Washington, DC 20005.

As for Steve Forbes, we hope he gets around to claiming his money. But we won't hold our breath for a thank-you note.

RELATED ARTICLE: Top-Yielding Money-Market Mutual Funds

GOT A small amount of cash? TIAA-CREF opened its money fund to all comers last winter. Minimum investment is $250, or $50 if you sign up for automatic investing. One reason for the fund's attractive yield is that it is waiving some of its expenses. That waiver lasts until July 2000.

                                RECENT              MIN
Taxable                      30-DAY YIELD          INVEST.

1. Strong Step 1(*)             5.68%             $ 1,000
2. Aon(*)                       5.42                1,000
3. Kiewit(*)                    5.42               10,000
4. Lake Forest(*)               5.37                2,500
5. TIAA-CREF(*)                 5.36                  250
  NATL AVERAGE                  5.00%

                                                  TOLL-FREE
Taxable                     WEB ADDRESS (WWW.)      NUMBER

1. Strong Step 1(*)         strong-funds.com       800-368-3863
2. Aon(*)                        --                800-266-3637
3. Kiewit(*)                kiewit.com             800-254-3948
4. Lake Forest(*)           lakeforestfunds.com    888-295-5707
5. TIAA-CREF(*)             tiaa-cref.org          800-223-1200
  NATL AVERAGE
                                    TAX EQ. YIELD
                       RECENT          28% 31%        MIN.
Tax-free            30-DAY YIELD       BRACKET       INVEST

1. Benham(*)          3.78%          5.3%/5.5%       $2,500
2. Strong             3.63           5.0/5.3          2,500
3. Vanguad            3.52           4.9/5.1          3,000
4. USAA               3.50           4.9/5.1          3,000
5. Zurich             3.46           4.8/5.0          1,000
 NATL AVERAGE         3.13%          4.3%4.5%

                                                TOLL-FREE
 Tax-free            WEB ADDRESS (WWW.)           NUMBER

1. Benham(*)        americancentury.com        800-472-3389
2. Strong            strong-funds.com          800-368-3863
3. Vanguad            vanguard.com             800-635-1511
4. USAA                    --                  800-382-8722
5. Zurich            zurichfunds.com           888-523-4140
 NATL AVERAGE