What are Unclaimed Funds?
Unclaimed Funds are monies that have been turned over to their respective states Treasury Department after they have been considered abandoned by their respective owners.
Unclaimed money goes by many names including, unclaimed assets, unclaimed funds, and unclaimed property. All of these terms refer to funds that have been turned over to their respective states Unclaimed Assets’ Departments’ after they have been considered abandoned by their respective owners.
History
A state receives unclaimed funds only after the company holding them can consider them “abandoned”. Money is usually considered abandoned three to five years after the company has lost contact with the owner, and three months after the company makes a final effort to reach the owner at their last known address. If the company does not have a last known address for the owner, then the assets go to the state in which it was incorporated.
Some examples of funds that become unclaimed are:
- Savings account
- Checking accounts
- Uncashed checks
- Telephone/utility deposits
- Rental security deposits
- Wages
- Insurance benefits/policies
- Safe deposit box contents
- Mortgage insurance refunds
- Stocks and Dividends
- Mutal Funds
- Certificate of Deposit
- Trust Funds
- Estate Proceeds
Accounts can become unclaimed for many reasons including:
-
Leaving a job and never claiming a final paycheck
- Failing to notify a company that owes you money that you have moved
- Opening a savings account for a child and forgetting about it
- Moving without getting back your utility deposit
- Forgetting to cash a health insurance check
- Neglecting to cash interest or dividend checks on a security
The list of reasons why accounts go unclaimed is endless.
In cases like these, money is eventually turned over to the state. Once the state receives these assets, it becomes their responsibility to return them to their rightful owner.
The state’s unclaimed property office will try to find the rightful owner. If the agency is not successful; it will hold the funds in perpetuity until the owner or next of kin comes to claim them.
The company that is holding your money has a certain period of time before they are required by law to turn it over to the state.
This is called the dormancy period.
The dormancy period varies by the type of money being held, and by the state. Some companies can hold money for as little as one year before they have to turn it over, others can hold it for as long as fifteen years.
The average amount of time for money being held before it has to be turned over to the state is three years. The majority of accounts fall within in the three to five year range. In three to five years, anything can happen as far as peoples living arrangements are concerned. Many people move, their companies are relocated, they divorce, re-marry, etc..
These factors can help contribute to this held money eventually being turned over to the state and becoming unclaimed state money.
Once the state receives these assets, it becomes their responsibility to return them to their rightful owner. The states unclaimed property office will try to find the rightful owner. If the agency is not successful, it will hold the funds in perpetuity until the owner or next of kin comes to claim them.
How to Prevent Your Funds From Becoming Unclaimed
Although states are tasked with keeping unclaimed funds available to its rightful owner the process of reclaiming these funds may involve some work.
Below are steps you can take to keep your funds from going unclaimed.
Keep Your Accounts Active
The best way to prevent unclaimed funds is to maintain activity on your financial accounts. This includes accounts such as checking, savings, and certificates of deposit. For these accounts, making an occasional deposit or withdrawal or contribution every now and then is key. Similar activity may be favorable for brokerage accounts, IRAs, or pension and 401K plans as well. Even the smallest activity can help keep an account active. This can remove the threat of an account becoming idle and unclaimed.
Maintain Current Contact Information
Individuals can also prevent unclaimed funds by keeping their contact information up to date. It can be easy to forget to update your information with a financial institution or past employer when moving. Yet, this is an important step to take when trying to avoid having unclaimed funds. If a company doesn’t know where to send the funds after the owner has moved, those funds can become unclaimed.
Share Your Information
Keeping someone that you trust informed of account locations and types can be very helpful. Doing so can make it easier for heirs to go through the process of claiming funds if the original owner has passed away.
How Do States Return Unclaimed Funds?
Once in the state’s unclaimed property program, the funds remain under its care until the rightful owner claims it.
To find the rightful owners, states make use of proactive outreach programs. This is done through social media, radio, television, and newspaper ads. Some outreach is done through in-person events such as state fairs and community gatherings. The most popular way to search is online. Once the rightful owner of unclaimed funds realizes they have property to retrieve, they can start the claim process.
To start, individuals or businesses must submit an inquiry to the state requesting their funds. Once they do this, the state will then request a claim form and supporting documentation. This helps them verify that the funds truly belong to the individual(s) trying to recover them. Claims can be filed by the individual owner listed or a party with legal authority to claim on the owner’s behalf. After this, the state evaluates the form and documentation, and the funds are returned to the original owner or rightful heir.
Searching for Unclaimed Property
For many people, unclaimed funds may seem like a non-issue because they’ve taken steps to keep their accounts active over the years. In reality, though, many people have unclaimed funds without even realizing it. Fortunately, an online search can help find unclaimed funds in a matter of minutes.
The Opportunity!
Overall, states collect about $ 4 billion dollars in unclaimed property every year. However, finding the rightful recipients of all that money can be overwhelming for most states. The average state’s unclaimed property office has over 50,000 accounts per staff member. If an address does exist, it is usually three to five years old. Many of the prospective recipients have moved, and there is now no forwarding address.
This is where the excellent opportunity has arisen for “unclaimed money finders”!
Because of the state governments’ inability to return such a large volume of unclaimed funds to their rightful owners, a tremendous business opportunity has developed.
Unclaimed Money Finders, also called fee finders, refund tracers, find claimants of unclaimed money and help to recover it. In return for finding and obtaining refunds for the claimants, the fee finders charge a fee, sometimes as high as 50%.
Some claimants have unclaimed funds totaling in the millions!
Many states, aware of the problem they face in finding everyone entitled to unclaimed money, request help from the public. As will be shown later, each state has its own rules and guidelines on what is acceptable for recovering unclaimed assets.
Did you know that there is an excellent virtually unknown business where you can make money finding unclaimed funds for other people?
Unclaimed money finders located individuals owed money that didn’t know they had it and help them claim it.
In return they charge a fee (commission), usually a percentage of what was recovered.
It is a very easy business and there are billions of dollars being held.
Please click here if you would like to learn more about it.
