Excerpt: Consider this story of a California man whose property landed in the hands of the state's unclaimed-property office. The 74-year-old somehow lost track of a bank account that contained more than $270,000 in CDs, dividend income, and interest from bonds, as well as more than 37,000 company shares. The stocks, in outfits such as Mobil and Bank of America, yielded more than $1 million.  MORE >>