PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss how Oregonians can check for any unclaimed money that they might be owed by the state, as well as her tenure as treasurer. Steiner served in the state Senate for 13 years prior to becoming the first woman and first physician to hold the office of treasurer. 

Her first year on the job coincides with the first year of the second Trump administration, during which Oregon has seen the impact of economic policy changes such as tariffs.

Oregon's chief economist was on Straight Talk last month and said that the impact of those policies on Oregon hasn't been as bad as a lot of economists predicted. Steiner agreed, though she stressed that the key part of the phrasing is it's not as bad.

"What we have seen is not so much that we lost jobs, which we were concerned that we would, but rather that job growth has slowed. And this is true in Oregon and it's true nationally," she said.

Unclaimed money

Feb. 1 is National Unclaimed Property Day, and last year the Oregon treasury returned almost $60 million in unclaimed property to Oregonians. 

According to Steiner, it happens because businesses, banks, and insurance companies are obligated to try to return property or money to its rightful owner, but if they're unable to make contact within three years, they have to turn it over to the state treasury for it to be held in trust for the person or their heirs.

"You'd be astonished how easy it is to lose track of a bank account that doesn't have a lot of money in it, or perhaps you didn't cash a refund check from a business, or you might be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy from someone that you didn't know you were a beneficiary of, and that person passed away, and that money is your unclaimed property," she said.

Oregonians can go to unclaimed.oregon.gov to easily check for unclaimed property by searching for their names or their family members' or coworkers' names. There's no deadline or expiration date to claim it — the treasury is obligated to hold into it forever.

Bank accounts tend to be the most common unclaimed asset, she said, because sometimes people change banks but forget to clean out small amounts of money from old accounts, or they get a refund check they didn't know about, or even in some cases uncashed paychecks.

Pension fund management

The treasury is responsible for managing the state's pension fund, and it recently released a report on its net zero climate investment strategy. 

There's an effort to move the fund's investments away from carbon-intensive industries and toward clean energy, although Steiner said that's not just a climate goal — it's part of her office's fiduciary responsibility, because the overall stock market shows a long-term trend toward clean energy investments.

"The most important thing that to our office is growing the pension fund and all the other trust funds that our office invests, which is about 20 to 25 different funds of all sorts," she said. "The pension fund is the biggest right now. We have about $100 billion in that fund, and we will always focus on what's best for beneficiaries, what helps grow the pension fund the best."

The emission profile of the fund's portfolio dropped by 50% in just a couple years, from the start of 2022 to the end of 2023, although Steiner said the treasury can't take all the credit for that — it also has to do with the performance of the clean energy investments that the treasury chose to make.

"Those clean energy investments dramatically outperformed, they got about 20% on a 5-year compared to 12% for the carbon-intensive ones," she said.

The success of the pension fund is important even for Oregonians who aren't directly invested in it, she added, because the more revenue the fund generates from investments, the less that public agencies have to use their own revenue to fund pension benefit obligations to public employees.

Changes to ABLE accounts

Asked about the most important financial move Oregonians can make at the moment, Steiner said the simple answer is to save money. 

"Whether it's saving for your child with a 529 or Embark account or saving for yourself through whatever your pension fund your employer offers, or if you're part of Oregon Saves, our statewide IRA, or if you have a family member or you yourself have a disability through an ABLE account, those are always we can help you save, and there are lots of other ways you can do it through our credit unions and banks," she said.

ABLE accounts are a tool for people with disabilities, designed to help them save for future health care or independent living expenses without the money being counted against their eligibility for public benefits. 

The account rules also recently changed to raise the age limit for a disability diagnosis from 26 to 46, she added, allowing adults to start those accounts if they suffer an accident or develop an autoimmune disease.

"So, being able to start an ABLE account now as a young adult or an early middle aged adult really helps them plan for their future and make sure that they can stay financially secure," she said.