Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had an article titled "States, Companies Don't Excel At Giving Back Unclaimed Money" that described the dismal record of both states and holders of returning unclaimed property to the owners. But what efforts do states take to return the property once it is in their coffers?
California has a system, brought about by litigation, that requires the state to perform an extra round of due diligence on potentially reportable property. A report is submitted by the holder to the state with information detailing property that the holder intends to report in June of the next year. California then takes that information and sends out letters of its own, in order to attempt to reunite the property with the owner before escheat happens.
Other states, however, have only a single report process for submitting property to the state, and they do not take the intermediate step of sending out letters. Some states will attempt to send out letters or postcards to owners if the state has a full mailing address, once they receive the property from the holders. Some states, such as North Carolina, will use other tax and DMV records to locate better addresses to send the postcards to. Kansas has Senate Bill 367 and House Bill 2413 pending that would allow the state treasurer access to tax records to locate property owners.
Most states have online searchable databases or have partnered with Missing Money to allow the public to search to see if the state is holding any money on their behalf. Delaware maintains a series of PDFs which lists the new properties reported to the state each year. Some state treasurers, including Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford maintain active Twitter accounts to inform citizens of events where they can work with unclaimed property staff to claim properties. These events are often at state fairs, Chamber of Commerce meetings, and other local government buildings.
There has also been a recent push by state treasurers and other unclaimed property departments to publicize the unclaimed property databases and educate the public. Good Morning America, ABC News, and untold numbers of local newspapers and news programs have run stories on unclaimed property. Unclaimed property has also become a favorite topic among personal finance bloggers, telling people how to claim their money from the state.
While these efforts are not always successful, there is only so much that states can do to track down individuals that have moved out-of-state or heirs of the deceased. The best way for property owners to retrieve their money is directly from the companies and holders they do business with in order to prevent the initial escheat.
