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The state of California is holding over $6 billion in unclaimed property. The search engine doesn't even do fuzzy string matching.

• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• ineedtosleep 14y ago
  Also note that: Due to the large volume of claims we receive and process, it may take up to 180 days to process your claim.
  • octonion 14y ago
    Wow, that's insane. Spending $50m/year to notify people and process these claims could easily be justified given the sheer size of the assets being held.
    • gojomo 14y ago
      Much of it will never be claimed (no matter how much effort is exerted). What is your reasoning for why that much expense would be justified? The average per potential claimant ($6B / 17.6MM) is only about $340.
    • kaybe 14y ago
      Are you sure they want the money to be claimed?
  • jconley 14y ago
    When we wrote this software, we tried hard to get a follow on contract to fix this 180 day problem using more automation. But, there was no budget, and the claims processors did not want to lose their jobs. We toured the location where they process the claims. They literally had piles of filing boxes containing the submitted claim forms in a secured room. I forget how many they do per day, but I remember being surprised at the volume. The site does many millions of searches per month...