Reclaiming lost bank accounts
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"We had a seven-carat diamond solitaire, eight bottles of Chateau Lafitte Rothschild from 1919 and personal pictures of actress Kim Novak and this lady she went on a trip to Paris with and a couple letters they had written to each other," says Koerber.

Koerber says the contents of safety deposit boxes are kept for a couple years and then sold at auction. The money is then put into an account in the owner's name.

There's no statute of limitations on unclaimed property. In essence, the state acts as custodian, and the money is held in trust for whenever the owner or heir claims it. Recovering an account once it's been escheated to a state can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. States can set their own time frame for processing a claim once all the documentation has been received. New York, for instance, which has $4 billion in unclaimed property, asks people to allow six months for their claim to be reviewed. If more documentation is needed, the process can drag on.

What can you do to make sure your accounts don't become dormant?

It's simple enough -- make a transaction once a year. Read your mail -- don't ignore notices from the bank. And, perhaps most important, share information with family members. Let them know what accounts you have and where they are. Give someone the power of attorney in case something happens to you.

If a locator or tracer company notifies you that you have unclaimed property, try to track it down yourself. Locator companies want a percentage of the loot. You might be able to claim it for free because most of the states' unclaimed property divisions don't charge a fee.

If you're looking for property, many states have an unclaimed property page on their Web site, but an easier way to search is by first visiting missingmoney.com, which is sponsored by The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Some 28 states can be searched all at once. Other states are being added to the site, and the search is free. Just enter a name and you'll be taken step-by-step through the process.

If you find property and it's in your name, you'll probably need a driver's license or picture ID in addition to something such as an old utility bill to prove you lived at that address at that time. If you're an heir, you'll probably be required to send a marriage or death certificate as well as proof of identification.