Your questions,
answered.

Financial assets left inactive by the Owner for a period of time get turned over to the State Treasury or Controller’s Office. Once they are considered “abandoned,” they become the property of the State. Some examples of unclaimed or abandoned assets include:

• Real estate
• Safe deposit box
• Unpaid wages
• Insurance policies
• Stocks, bonds, mutual funds
• Retirement accounts
• Escheated accounts

The major players in the restitution process are the Owner, the Holder, and the State. The Owner (you) is the person who has the legal right to the assets in question. The Holder represents the organization the asset was originally entrusted to. Holders can include: lawyers, insurance companies, banks, utility companies, etc. The Holder was the first entity to try and contact you. The State is the third participant in the process. It is the governing body that sets policy and oversees management of abandoned assets. When the Holder was unable to find you, the assets were turned over to the State. Now, those assets collect interest for the State.

Each state follows its own policies and procedures when it comes to receiving or seizing abandoned property. Most require Holders to contact the Owner and notify them of the assets. However, when contact information (like addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, names, etc.) change, tracking down the Owner proves to be difficult. In some cases, Owners - who may not be expecting notification - may dismiss the contact attempts or believe it’s another scam. In the State of California, the Holder has three years to attempt to make contact. After that, the assets must be turned over to the State. The State proceeds to use the same failed contact information to notify the Owner. If no action is taken by the rightful Owners, the assets are held by the State (earning interest) which the State keeps.

There are many reasons why the original Holder of the funds (or the State) may have had difficulty contacting you. Any change in information can make it more challenging to track down the Owner of an asset. Events like deaths, marriages, and divorces, as well as changes in mailing addresses, phone numbers, or even clerical errors, throw all sorts of wrenches into the process.

We are a licensed asset recovery company registered with the State of California and authorized by the State Controller’s Office. This licensure gives us the authority to track down the rightful Owners of the funds and assist them in asset recovery. Under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, we use a variety of methods to locate people in our efforts to restore to them what has been lost. We specialize in finding lost assets and the people to whom they belong.

We invest 100% of our time and expense to find you and make you aware of your unclaimed assets. Whether or not you choose to partner with us work on your behalf to claim your assets is your decision. If you choose to work with us, we fill out and process all the forms, track documentation, complete notarizing, and submit filing on behalf of your claim. We don’t stop until your money is in your pocket.

You don’t pay us anything. Many states set a predetermined finder’s fee for unclaimed assets. This fee is usually a percentage of the recovered asset. The State of California determined that 10% of the recovered asset is a fair and equitable amount for an asset recovery company to receive for its part in locating Owners. You always have the option of saving the 10% fee by attempting to navigate the recovery process yourself.

Should you choose to let us work for you, we go beyond simply notifying you of your abandoned assets. We can manage a claim for you by collecting documentation, filling out the proper forms, creating a claim package, and submitting it to the State. In this process, we adhere to all California codes and statute requirements. When your assets are restored, the State of California pays us 10% directly out of the asset recovered. We don’t get paid unless, and until, you do.

Unfortunately, no. While this law may vary state to state, California’s Unclaimed Property Law was amended in August 2003 and no longer provides for the earned interest to be returned to the legal Owners when they reclaim an abandoned property.

There are a number of steps you can take to prevent your property from being turned over to the State. These include:

• Providing your financial institutions with a primary contact, secondary contact, and beneficiary contact name.
• Keeping accurate records of all financial accounts and reviewing them annually
• Maintaining annual activity on all investment accounts
• Listing multiple contingent beneficiaries on life insurance policies and updating changes to that information in a timely manner
• Being diligently aware of all of your accounts
• Cash all dividend, interest, or refund checks promptly

If your property is being held by the State of California, we can help regardless of your current state of residence. Most states have a specific process for reclaiming abandoned property. While we currently focus our work within the State of California, we are rapidly expanding into other states. If you live outside of California, please contact us, and we’ll see how we can help.