“Get the money you deserve”

What are the Top 5 reasons items/properties become unclaimed?

1. Failure to update your address .
This is the most common reason that assets become lost. Unfortunately, in the hustle and bustle of moving, some people only provide the post office with a new address and not the holders of their assets. The post office update only lasts for six months. After its expiration, any mail from a company will be returned. Eventually, the asset becomes unclaimed property and must be turned over to the state.

2. Mergers and Acquisitions .
Lost assets may occur from corporate mergers and acquisitions. When one Fortune 500 Company buys another, the information that shareholders receive can be complex and difficult to understand. If they neglect to tender their shares in the allotted time frame, they may never receive their shares in the new company. Another problem occurs when investors from the original company get information from the new, unrecognizable institution and may even throw out the pertinent information. When they stop hearing about their mutual fund or IRA or SEP, some investors simply forget about these assets altogether.

3. Inactivity .
Companies may declare an asset unclaimed due to inactivity such as uncashed dividend checks, lack of withdrawals and deposits and unredeemed certificates. For instance, Intel common stock pays a dividend of $0.02 per quarter. The owner of 100 shares may fail to cash the $2.00 check they get from the company, or may “save them up” over time. But once the inactivity reaches the state-allotted time limit, the value of those dividend checks, as well as all of the underlying shares, may be transferred to the state as unclaimed property.

4. Lost stock certificates .
It’s sad, but true, that despite the proliferation of Internet technology, a great deal of wealth is still counted in the form of stock and bond certificates, which can be easily lost or destroyed.

5. Poor record keeping and communication .
Family financial management is rarely a shared activity within a household. Unfortunately, this sets up a situation where one party has an asset the other doesn’t know about. When circumstances change within the household, like in the case of divorce or death, a situation arises where lack of knowledge could result in the loss of an asset. Often, relatives, particularly grandparents, may not fully communicate the gifts of stocks, bonds and checks to their loved ones.