New Web Site Holds Unclaimed Property Info

If you want to search for treasure, you don’t have to dig in old gold mines, or dive in seas to sunken ships, or dig on tropical islands for buried pirate booty. You can go searching on the Internet.

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators has established a Web site at http:/ /www/intersurf.com/%Enaupa. It may be your key to money or other valuables that belong to you.

NAUPA members are state government offices of unclaimed funds and personal property in all 50 states - offices that have hundreds of millions of dollars in funds or property waiting to be claimed by rightful owners.

The funds or property may include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, contents of safe-deposit boxes, uncashed payroll or cashier’s checks, paid-up insurance policies or benefits, stocks, dividends, money orders and traveler’s checks that were never collected - or otherwise abandoned - by their owners.

The NAUPA site provides Internet connections to states that have set up Web sites for their offices of unclaimed funds and property.

Addresses are provided for offices, such as Washington’s and Idaho’s, that have not yet established Web sites.

Washington is expected to be on-line shortly.

Index funds reduce some taxes

If you’re considering an investment in index funds, put this factor in the balance: tax advantages.

In an ordinary, actively managed fund, the managers routinely buy and sell stocks in a search for winners. Late in the year, the profits from those trades are sent to fund shareholders as capital gains distributions. The shareholder pays capital gains tax on this distribution even if he or she has held onto the fund shares themselves, and even if the distributions were automatically reinvested.

But index fund managers don’t hunt for hot stocks, they simply buy the stocks represented in an index, like the Standard & Poor’s 500, and hold them. They might occasionally sell because the makeup of the index changes, or to raise money when investors want to redeem their shares, though most redemptions are covered by cash on hand.

The result is that most of the gains from rising stocks are reflected in rising fund-share prices rather than capital gains distributions. Since these gains are not “realized” for tax purposes, there’s no annual capital gains tax on them. You’re not taxed on these profits until you sell the fund shares. Your money remains invested.

Many index funds also have low dividend payments. Dividends paid by stocks in the fund are distributed to shareholders each year and taxed as income. The lower the dividend payment the lower the annual taxes - and the more your money is left alone to grow.

Fund designed for very young

Buying a mutual fund for a child is a great idea, but it’s not easy if you don’t have a lot to invest. Check out SteinRoe Young Investor Fund (1-800-338-2550). Set up in 1994, it now has 35,000 shareholders, with an average age of 9. The fund invests in companies that “affect the lives of teenagers and children” (Nike, Nabisco Holdings, PETsMART, etc.). And it permits an initial outlay of just $100 if you agree to monthly investments of $50 or more.

Sheldon Jacobs of the No-Load Fund Investor praises the fund for making an effort to educate kids. He also says it’s gained 34.1 percent for the latest 12 months, ranking it 10th among all no-loads.