Forgotten checking accounts, stock certificates, deposits and other items held by the state's Unclaimed Property Program ballooned by $10 million in the past year to $130 million.

The increase came despite the state returning $4.2 million to about 6,100 people during the year.

While not the biggest amount returned since the program started, the state is getting better at promoting and getting funds back to rightful owners, said Scott Kami, who oversees the program of the state Department of Budget and Finance. In the program, banks, companies, state agencies and others are required to report accounts that haven't been active for five years. The state collects and holds the abandoned property and makes it available to rightful owners who have to apply to get it back.

Nationally, at least $32.8 billion is being held for owners by states and the District of Columbia. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators said last year that more than 1.9 million claims worth at least $1.7 billion were paid out to owners. Typically, the overlooked money is made up of unclaimed checking and savings accounts, checks not cashed and contents of safe deposit boxes.

Kami said many of the claims are for less than $100. But there have been instances where the department has paid $209,000 from a municipal bond and $151,000 to someone who was a life insurance beneficiary.

"For me, it's hard to fathom someone forgetting about that," Kami said. "But we do have claims that go over $100,000."

He said the state has stepped up its outreach efforts, resulting in $9.3 million being returned to about 14,400 people during the 2006-2007 fiscal biennium. That compared with $6 million returned to 8,900 people in the 2004-2005 biennium.

The state can't touch the money but does sweep interest earned off the money into the state's general fund. That amounted to more than $4 million in the past year, Kami said.

The program doesn't charge a fee for returning the money to owners, who have to fill out a claim form giving their personal information, Social Security number and an explanation of why the money is theirs. More documentation may be required in some cases. There also are private companies that will do searches for you, for a fee.

Other states have similar programs. These can be found at the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' Web site at www.unclaimed.org. A related Web site performs the searches for multiple states at www.missingmoney.com.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.