WSJ:

There is a $659.01 check with actress Angelina Jolie's name on it sitting on California's unclaimed-property list. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has at least two unclaimed checks in his state. And prominent bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has under $100 lingering in unclaimed property with of Illinois.

At a time when states are criticizing insurance companies for not doing enough to find beneficiaries for unclaimed life-insurance policies, it appears that the states aren't always doing a terrific job of uniting funds with the parties owed them, either: Somehow, over the course of several years, it's been too hard to locate Ms. Jolie and Messrs. Giuliani and Emanuel and return their money, despite the fact that they are well known.

That doesn't provide much hope for the thousands of other people with names like John Smith who have unclaimed property held by the states where they lived at one time.

This kind of thing is common in our society. Unclaimed money is all over the place. And a part of the problem is not just unknown money but money you do know about. For example, I know that Amazon.com owes me money for writing work from years and years ago, but it's not that much (about $200) and their system for claiming payment is so complicated it's not worth the trouble. Claiming unclaimed money often takes too much work. Which reminds me, I have paperwork on my desk for unclaimed insurance money from a year ago.