Secret Santa: The State Escheat Lists

[a reprint of an article from 12-31-08, with updated links, because still relevant every year]

When you buy a gift card that is never used; when you walk away from the balance of an old bank account; or where someone dies owning securities but there is no heir to inherit the shares; where you move and forget about a deposit left with utility companies; where insurance money is due to unknown beneficiaries; where the lease on a safe deposit box lapses and no one shows up to pick up what is inside; what becomes of these property rights?  In feudal England, where our laws derive from, all unclaimed property returned to the King.  Like the end of a game of Monopoly, all the money went back into the box, to be redistributed in a new game.  The concept is called "escheat" and it survives in the laws of the fifty states.  As Blackstone said (I've always wanted to quote Blackstone - it sounds so authoritative), "The word itself is originally French or Norman, in which language it signifies chance or accident, and with us denotes an obstruction of the course of descent … in which case the land naturally results back … to the … lord of the fee." 

We have no lords of the fee these days, but still have the problem of what to do with lost or unclaimed property, and we have adopted the same solution:  the state has the right to all unclaimed property.  In the words of the Pennsylvania law, "All abandoned and unclaimed property and property without a rightful or lawful owner as hereafter set forth is subject to the custody and control of the Commonwealth …"  Of course in Pennsylvania they cannot claim property in Alaska or even New Jersey, and so the law further limits their reach to property that is physically located in Pennsylvania, and for intangible property, if the last known address of the owner is within the Commonwealth.  When is property considered abandoned and unclaimed?  The Pennsylvania law in its wisdom goes on for eighteen pages, but the bottom line is that for most property in an account, if there has been no activity for five years, then the property is presumed abandoned.  So how does the Commonwealth find out about what is unclaimed?  The holder of the property must file a report each year.  The Commonwealth then compiles a list, containing the names, items of property and last known addresses, if any, of the owners listed in the reports, and makes the information publicly accessible.  Before the Internet, that public notice was an ad in a newspaper in each county showing all of the unclaimed property for addresses in that county.  Now, those ads still run, but Pennsylvania has set up a website, at http://www.patreasury.org/unclaimedProperty.html , that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a search engine to easily search for any items by last name or company name of the owner.  New Jersey has a similar site at:  http://www.unclaimedproperty.nj.gov/l .  Delaware too:  http://php.delawareonline.com/state/unclaimed.php .  If you want to search for some other state, use the search term "unclaimed property" along with the state name. 

If you find a listing for property that may be yours, or someone you know, each site has a procedure for filing a claim, and a process for proving who you are and that you are entitled to the return of your property.  If the property is something other than money, then the state may have sold it, but will give you the cash value of the property realized in the sale.  There are companies who will file your claim for you for a fee, but as noted on the Pennsylvania site, "Our staff will assist you in recovering your property free of charge." 

So how big a problem is this for the Commonwealth?  In their own words, "The Treasury Department is seeking the owners of over $1 billion in unclaimed property.  In 2007, we returned nearly $88.8 million to over 63,000 owners."  That is a lot of unclaimed property.  I hope some of it is yours, or someone's that you know, and that in 2011 you thread your way through the process and help to return some of this amount to its rightful owners.  Pass the word!

©2010  Douglas P. Humes