Statewide public auction of unclaimed assets set for Saturday in West Palm Beach

An auction on unclaimed property in Florida will be held and overseen by state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

The preview of the auction will be available Friday morning but the auction itself will take place at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Embassy Suites by Hilton, 1601 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach. Those interested in the auction can look up the items that will be available by going to an online catalog.

However, the auction function will be an in-person event.

An unclaimed property auction consists of items ranging from financial assets that are unknown, lost, or inactive. That can vary from dormant bank accounts, unclaimed insurance proceeds, stocks, dividends, uncashed checks, deposits, credit balances and refunds. Then there could be tangible property such as items in safe deposit boxes, unclaimed property held by businesses or governments that haven’t been claimed usually for a period of five years.

“I’m excited to kick off our unclaimed property auction in West Palm Beach next weekend with some outstanding items to bid on, including a men’s gold ruby and diamond ring and a ladies’ platinum and diamond Hamilton watch,” Patronis said in a prepared statement.

Ultimately, all proceeds from the items sold at the auction go back to the taxpayers of the state of Florida.

“The proceeds generated by this auction are used to help fund education in Florida, and unclaimed property owners can still claim the value of these items at any time. Since becoming your CFO in 2017, I have returned more than $2.5 billion in unclaimed property back to the pockets of Floridians. An estimated one in five Floridians has unclaimed funds, and I’m encouraging all individuals and business owners to search now for unclaimed property,” Patronis said.

If no one claims the items, they are then put up for auction and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property.