•  Whether it is a forgotten safety deposit box or a lost dividend check, or even misplaced shares of stock, the state of South Dakota is the keeper of unclaimed property.
•  However, State Treasurer Rich Sattgast and his staff don't necessarily want to keep the property forever. In fact, they actively work to get such items back to their rightful owners.
•  Now, with several innovative ideas in place, Sattgast and Unclaimed Property Administrator Lee DeJabet already are seeing large increases in inquiries about such property, and getting it back in the hands of the rightful owners.
•  But, just what is unclaimed property?
•  "We get property in from the financial institutions, life insurance, banks, credit card companies, and safe deposit boxes or stock," said DeJabet, and it is put into the department's data base with the last known person, address, or "whatever the holder (financial institution) gives us."
•  Financial institutions from all over the nation are required to do that each year with unclaimed property, she said. Once the state has it, the state is required to advertise what it is holding.
•  The advertising season recently ended for the department, and inquiries have been pouring in. The ads listed names, addresses and a file number for each unclaimed property and are regionalized for the area served by the newspaper.
•  "Now we will ask you a few questions," said DeJabet about the process, "if we are talking to you on the phone." That will be such things as name, address and social security number. If that matches, she said, a claim form will be mailed out.
•  The claim form will have on it how much the property is, where it came from, how much it is, and the guidelines, or documentation the department needs.
•  "Two things we always require," said DeJabet, "are a government-issued photo ID and your social security number." There will also have to be proof if a name has changed, she added.
•  Then, depending on what kind of property it is, business, inheritance and such, all have their own type of documentation needed, she said.
•  Once the applicant returns the claim form, she said, and "everything is good, we process it and it goes for payment." This generally takes 10 days, DeJabet said, but

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