Kansas State Treasurer Dennis McKinney announced today that his office has returned a record number of unclaimed property claims in fiscal year 2009.

From June 30, 2008 to 2009 the State Treasurer's office had returned 38,637 claims totaling nearly $11 million dollars, up from the number of 2008 claims by almost 20 percent.

"Kansans value private property rights, and as custodian of this unclaimed property we take the responsibility to reunite people with their assets very seriously," said McKinney. "Our staff works hard to return as much as possible and these record return numbers reflect just that," McKinney explained.

The Treasurer's office uses the web site www.kansascash.com as a main way to connect Kansans with their unclaimed property. The unclaimed property web-site is a free tool that has been searched over 9,516,945 times and generated claims as large as $184,195.67 in value.

"Not only is the web site user friendly but it is also a resourceful way of searching and returning unclaimed property," McKinney said.

As well, the Kansas Treasurer's Office provides an option to go paperless with claiming your property that has generated more than 7,000 individual paperless claims and more than half a million dollars in paperless returns. The number of claimants filing electronically has more than doubled since last year.

Each year thousands of people lose track of their bank accounts, cash, stocks, bonds, refunds, royalties, safe deposit boxes and other property. People move and forget to furnish their bank, broker, employer or insurance company with a forwarding address. It is the Treasurer's charge to locate the rightful owners and heirs to the over $209 million in unclaimed assets currently being held by the State of Kansas.