How a person's money ends up with the state

A bank, insurer, employer or broker that holds money it cannot deliver does not keep it. After a period with no contact from the owner — the dormancy period — it must hand the money to a state. That is escheat, and it is a transfer of custody rather than a forfeiture: the state holds it for the owner or the owner's heirs and publishes a searchable record.

This is why searching is worth doing even when a family is certain there is nothing. The typical entry is not a fortune. It is a final payroll check never cashed, a utility deposit from a house sold twenty years ago, a closed savings account with a residue in it, a dividend on shares nobody remembered, or the proceeds of a policy whose beneficiary had moved.

Property is generally reported to the state of the owner's last known address, not to the state where the company is. So the search runs against every state the person lived or worked in — and, because a beneficiary's address is often unknown, an insurance benefit tends to escheat to the state where the person who died lived rather than to the state where the beneficiary lives.

1

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The letter that arrives after the obituary

A death makes an unclaimed-property record usable. The owner's name is public, the obituary supplies the connection, and the survivors are named in it. So a letter arrives — from a firm calling itself a locator, a recovery service or an heir finder — saying that money is being held, that they will recover it, and that they will take a share. It does not say how much money, or where, because that is the only thing they are selling.

The service is legal and it is not always worthless: a genuinely obscure claim across several states, or one that needs a court appointment, is real work. But the letter is not evidence that anything exists, and the same search they ran is open to you at no cost. Run it before replying to anything.

Each of the 13 states read here regulates these agreements, and the terms differ enough to change the decision. The fee ceiling runs from 10 per cent in California to 30 per cent in Arizona and Florida. More useful than the caps: in California and Arizona an agreement signed at the wrong moment is void outright, in Florida anything other than the department's own form is void, and in New York the contract must be notarized and carry a boldface paragraph telling you that you can do it yourself for nothing.

If a letter does arrive, it is worth treating as information rather than as an offer. It tells you that a searchable record probably exists with that person's name on it. Search the state it came from, then the others.

3610

Claiming as a survivor or an executor

A claim on behalf of someone who has died asks the state two questions: that the person is dead, and that you are entitled to what was theirs. In practice that means a certified death certificate plus whichever of these fits — letters of authority if an estate has been opened, a small-estate affidavit where the amount is within the state's threshold, or proof of relationship where the program pays heirs directly.

  1. Search first, in every state they lived or worked in, and in their maiden or former names as well. Searching is free everywhere and needs nothing but a name.
  2. Record what you find before you claim: the state, the account number the program shows, the holder's name and the amount. That record is what tells you later whether a finder's letter is describing something real.
  3. Work out which authority the state wants for the amount involved. Many programs pay small amounts to an heir on an affidavit and require letters only above a threshold, so it is worth asking before opening a probate you would not otherwise need.
  4. Answer the state's requests promptly. A request for more evidence usually carries a deadline, and in Florida an unanswered one closes the claim by itself.
  5. Re-search after the estate closes. Property reported by a holder after your first search will not have been there when you looked, and dormancy periods mean some of it appears years later.

How long the state takes is set by statute, not by how busy it is, and it is worth knowing before you promise a beneficiary a date. California gives the Controller a hundred and eighty days to consider a claim; Arizona gives its department ninety, and thirty more to pay once it allows the claim. Neither state pays interest — in California the statute says so expressly — so money that sat with the state for a decade comes back at the number it went in at.

A refusal is not usually final. Arizona, for one, requires the department to say what additional evidence would have allowed the claim, and lets you file again or go to the superior court. Read a denial for what it asks for rather than as an answer.

412

Savings bonds: the federal search that closed

Nearly every after-a-death checklist tells families to run Treasury Hunt, the federal tool for finding unredeemed savings bonds. It no longer exists. Treasury withdrew it on 30 September 2025 and did not replace it with a search.

What is left is a claim, not a lookup: TreasuryDirect directs anyone who suspects there is an unredeemed lost, stolen or destroyed bond to its forms page and a claim process. The difference matters. A search answers whether they owned any; a claim requires you to already believe they did.

So there is currently no free federal way to check whether a person who died held savings bonds. The paper trail is the only starting point — a bond in a drawer or a safe-deposit box, an old bank record, an interest entry on a tax return, a note in a will. Matured bonds have stopped earning interest, so an unfound one loses real value every year.

Note that state unclaimed-property programs do not fill this gap. Some states hold bonds they have escheated, but a bond the person still had is a federal obligation and has never been in any state's records.

2

How long the state holds it

Two clocks matter and families usually know about neither. The first runs before escheat: how long a holder waits, after the last contact, before sending the money to the state. The second runs after it: how long the state will hold the money for you. They are set by different provisions, they are answered differently state by state, and only the second one is ever discussed.

A death can shorten the first clock. Where a state has written that rule, learning the owner has died starts a shorter period than the ordinary dormancy one, which means an account can reach the state while the estate is still open and the family is still working through the paper. There is usually a lever against it, and it is one an executor can actually pull: telling the holder that an estate exists and that a fiduciary has been appointed. An expression of interest is a low bar — a recorded communication about the account will generally do — and it is the rare case where telling a bank you exist changes a legal outcome. So the instruction is the same everywhere: once there is an executor, tell every institution, early, in writing.

On the second clock the states genuinely disagree, and the disagreement is not about the length. Some hold unclaimed property indefinitely and legislate that they never take permanent ownership of it; at least one sets a long but finite outside limit, after which the claim is gone. That gap reaches exactly one kind of family — an estate working through a grandparent's papers, or a box of certificates from the 1970s — and for them it is the whole question. It is worth asking of the specific state rather than assumed either way, and Sahvelo answers it state by state for the ones it has read.

The deadline families watch for is usually not the one that bites. Where a state holds the money indefinitely there is no deadline to claim at all — and a claim that gets DENIED can start a separate, much shorter clock for challenging the refusal in court, running while the claim route is still wide open. Sahvelo has read that pattern in California and does not assert it elsewhere; what carries to any state is the question to ask, which is two questions. How long do I have to claim, and how long do I have to challenge a refusal? Only the first is ever advertised.

If a claim is denied, the useful move is usually not the lawsuit. Filing again with the evidence the denial asked for — normally a document proving the death or the relationship — costs nothing and, where there is no deadline to claim, has no deadline either. The short court clock matters when the state is wrong about the law rather than short of a document.

9413

What changes where you live

Thirteen states, one transaction: somebody offers to recover unclaimed property for a share of it. What they may charge differs by a factor of seven — five per cent in Washington, thirty-five in New Jersey's earliest tier, and no cap at all in Michigan — and two states make the approach itself unlawful rather than merely unenforceable.

What is the most a recovery firm may charge?

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    Thirty per cent of the value of the recoverable property reported to the department. Above that the agreement is unenforceable except by the owner, and the owner — or the department acting for them — can sue to reduce it, with attorney fees available to an owner who wins.3

  • California

    Ten per cent of the recovered property, the lowest of the four. No fee of any kind may be required before the Controller has approved the claim and paid it.6

  • Florida

    Thirty per cent of the claimed amount. If the agreement charges more, the department reduces the fee to thirty per cent and sends the balance straight to the claimant rather than voiding the claim.7

  • Illinois

    Ten per cent of the amount collected — and Illinois closes the way round it. Buying the claim outright instead of charging a fee is prohibited where it nets the finder more than ten per cent. Above the cap the agreement is unenforceable except by the owner, and from 1 January 2026 a finder must be licensed by the administrator, so an unlicensed approach after that date is a reason to stop reading.14

  • Michigan

    None. Michigan is the only state in this comparison that sets no percentage limit at all — MCL 567.256 is a single sentence imposing a waiting period and nothing else. No writing requirement, no notarization, no disclosure list. After twenty-four months you are negotiating with no statutory ceiling above you, so the fee is whatever you agree to. Agree to less.15

  • New Jersey

    Three tiers, and the one that matters is the earliest. Twenty per cent for an agreement made more than twenty-four months after the property reached the administrator. Thirty-five per cent — the highest figure anywhere in this comparison — for an agreement made before the property was ever presumed abandoned, which is to say before it was even lost. Nothing enforceable inside the twenty-four-month window.17

  • New York

    Fifteen per cent of the value of recoverable property. An agreement providing for more is not valid.10

  • North Carolina

    One thousand dollars or twenty per cent of what is recovered, whichever is LESS — the only dollar ceiling in this comparison, and the one that changes most with the size of the recovery. Below five thousand dollars the percentage binds; above it the thousand does, so on a fifty-thousand-dollar recovery a finder may take a thousand and no more.18

  • Ohio

    Ten per cent of the amount recovered and paid to the owner, and only where the agreement is also in writing, signed by the owner and notarized, and discloses the owner's name, address and telephone number both as the holder's records show them and as they actually are.19

  • Pennsylvania

    Fifteen per cent of the value of the property, and the agreement is unenforceable without it stated clearly. Pennsylvania also keeps the argument permanently open: nothing in the section prevents an owner asserting at any time that an agreement is based on an excessive or unjust consideration.20

  • Texas

    Ten per cent of the value of the property recovered, plus reasonable attorney's fees necessary to pursue the claim. Where the property is mineral proceeds, the fee may not include a share of the underlying minerals or a production payment or overriding royalty.21

  • Virginia

    Ten per cent, but only after the longest freeze in this comparison. No agreement entered into after thirty-six months from the required delivery date is valid if the fee exceeds ten per cent of what is recovered — and before those thirty-six months there is no valid agreement at any price.22

  • Washington

    Five per cent of the value reasonably expected to be recovered — the lowest anywhere in this comparison, against ten in most states and thirty-five in New Jersey's earliest tier. Above five per cent the agreement is unenforceable.23

When is the agreement void whatever it says?

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    From the date the property was presumed abandoned until twenty-four months after it reaches the department — which is the entire period in which a finder has an informational advantage. An agreement with an attorney to file a claim on identified property, or to contest a denial, is outside the ban.3

  • California

    Between the date the holder files its report and the date the property is actually delivered to the Controller — again, the window where the finder knows and the owner does not. Also void is any agreement requiring payment before the claim is approved and paid.6

  • Florida

    There is no time window; the restriction is on the instrument. Only the department's Unclaimed Property Recovery Agreement or Purchase Agreement may be used, and any other engagement, authorization, recovery or fee agreement is void. The agreement may not be made irrevocable or assign any part of the property.7

  • Illinois

    From the date the property was presumed abandoned until twenty-four months after it reaches the administrator — the whole period in which the finder knows and the owner does not. An agreement with an attorney you already had, to pursue identified property or contest a denial, sits outside the section, and so does an agreement with a licensed Illinois CPA firm.14

  • Michigan

    Twenty-four months from the date the property is paid or delivered to the administrator. An agreement made inside that window is unenforceable, and that is the entire protection Michigan provides.15

  • New Jersey

    Twenty-four months from the date the property is paid or delivered to the administrator: agreements made in that period are void and unenforceable outright. Outside it, an agreement must be in writing, signed by the apparent owner, and must set out the nature and value of the property and what the owner's share will be after the fee.17

  • New York

    No window either — but the agreement is invalid unless it is on the comptroller's form, in writing, signed by the owner, and witnessed and acknowledged by a notary public.10

  • North Carolina

    From the date the property became distributable to the owner until twenty-four months after it reaches the Treasurer. An agreement with an attorney to file a claim or special proceeding on identified property, or to contest a denial, is outside it. A separate provision voids the agreement outright where the finder, or anyone acting as their agent or counsel, is also appointed personal representative of the owner's estate.18

  • Ohio

    Two years from the date the holder's report is filed — and Ohio is one of only two states here that prohibits the APPROACH rather than merely the agreement. A finder may not initiate any contact with an owner during those two years, and failure to comply is itself a ground for invalidating whatever agreement follows. So a cold letter inside the window is not just a bad deal; it is evidence.19

  • Pennsylvania

    No time window at all — Pennsylvania protects by disclosure rather than by delay. The agreement must be in writing, signed and acknowledged by the owner, and must disclose the nature and value of the property, the holder's name and address, whether the property has already reached the Treasurer, and who is assisting.20

  • Texas

    No time window. Texas restricts what the finder may do rather than when they may do it, and the enforceability conditions are three: the agreement must clearly state the nature of the property and the services, be signed by or for the claimant, and state the value expected to be recovered both before and after the fee is deducted.21

  • Virginia

    Thirty-six months from the date the holder delivers the property to the administrator, and Virginia writes it as a prohibition on the finder rather than as a voiding of the contract: it is unlawful for any person to seek or receive from another, or contract with another, for a fee for locating property they know has been reported or delivered. Seeking is enough. A Virginia family approached inside three years is being approached unlawfully.22

  • Washington

    No time window. Washington regulates the terms instead, and its cap does the work a waiting period does elsewhere. The section expressly does not stop an owner or the administrator asserting that an agreement is void on some other ground, and it does not reach an agreement with an attorney to pursue identified property or contest a denial.23

Who may file the claim for you?

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    The statute does not restrict who may be engaged; it restricts when and on what terms. The department must decide a claim within ninety days and pay within thirty days of allowing it.4

  • California

    Only an owner may file — and the statute counts the heirs and the estate representative of the person who died as owners, so a survivor can claim in their own right. A recovery firm may help an owner file; it cannot be the claimant. Separately, §1582 restricts the agreement rather than the representative, and requires it to tell you in writing that the Controller holds the property and where you can claim it directly.126

  • Florida

    Only a Florida-licensed attorney, a Florida-certified public accountant, or a private investigator licensed under chapter 493 — and they must be registered with the department. A national recovery firm without a Florida license cannot lawfully file the claim it is writing to you about.8

  • Illinois

    Not restricted by this section, which governs the terms rather than the filer. What it does restrict is who may act as a finder at all: from January 2026 they must hold a license from the administrator. An existing lawyer or CPA firm is outside the section entirely.14

  • Michigan

    Not restricted. What Michigan regulates instead is the data: a locator must register with the department and pay twelve hundred dollars, renewable every four years, before the State will provide unclaimed-property account information to them.16

  • New Jersey

    Not restricted by this section. What is preserved instead is an argument that never expires: nothing in the section prevents an owner asserting at any time that an agreement to locate property is based upon an excessive or unjust consideration.17

  • New York

    Not restricted, but attorneys and accountants sit outside the section only in three defined cases, including where there was already a relationship with the client. A firm that approached you is not in any of them.10

  • North Carolina

    North Carolina is the strictest here on who may be on the other side of the paper. The agreement is void unless it is signed by a licensed private investigator authorized to bind the property finder, with that signature notarized, as well as by the owner with theirs notarized. It must also carry the Treasurer's own property ID, say that other claims may reduce the owner's share, and state the value both before and after the fee. Property finders must register with the Treasurer each calendar year.18

  • Ohio

    Not restricted by this section, which regulates the terms and the timing. The contact prohibition is the operative protection: if they wrote to you first, inside two years of the report, the agreement can be invalidated on that basis alone.19

  • Pennsylvania

    The test a family can apply on the spot: the agreement is enforceable only if it identifies the valid certificate of registration number assigned to the person assisting. A document with no registration number on it is unenforceable whatever else it says. A representative acting for a fixed fee or an hourly rate not contingent on what is found sits outside the section — unless the arrangement exists to evade it, in which case it is void.20

  • Texas

    You do, and this is Texas's distinctive protection. A person who informed you about the property and is to receive a percentage of it may not file or receive a claim form on your behalf. The finder therefore cannot stand between you and the comptroller: the claim is yours to make and the payment comes to you.21

  • Virginia

    Not restricted by this section. The protection is the thirty-six-month bar and the ten per cent ceiling after it — which between them mean that the correct response to an approach in the first three years is to search Virginia's own list yourself rather than to negotiate.22

  • Washington

    Not restricted. What is required is disclosure: the agreement is enforceable only if it is in a record clearly stating the property and the services, is signed by or for the apparent owner, and states the value expected to be recovered computed both before and after the fee. That last condition forces two numbers onto the page rather than one.24

Does a death send the money to the state sooner?

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    Not on the dormancy period, but Arizona puts the duty on the other side for life insurance. A company that learns its insured has died and hears nothing from the beneficiary within four months must take reasonable steps to pay the proceeds. A family that assumes the insurer is entitled to sit quietly is wrong about Arizona, and saying so changes the phone call.5

  • California

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Florida

    Yes, and sharply. The general rule is five years of no contact, but once a holder learns the owner has died the property is presumed unclaimed two years after the date of death — unless a fiduciary appointed for the estate has expressed an interest in it before then. That exception is the whole point: an executor who tells the holder the estate exists stops the shortened clock.9

  • Illinois

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Michigan

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • New Jersey

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • New York

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • North Carolina

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Ohio

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Pennsylvania

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Texas

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read this state's finder-agreement provisions and not its dormancy provisions, so nothing is asserted about whether a death shortens the clock. The state's own unclaimed-property search is free, and an executor who tells each institution that an estate has been opened is doing the thing that helps under either answer.

  • Virginia

    Not established as a death-triggered rule. Sahvelo has read Va. Code 55.1-2507, which sets a five-year abandonment clock for life insurance money, and has not read a provision shortening it on a death — so nothing is asserted either way.22

  • Washington

    Not established as a shortened dormancy period. What Sahvelo has read is the adjacent rule: RCW 63.30.130 sets when a life insurance company is treated as KNOWING that an insured has died, which is the trigger the shorter clocks elsewhere hang on. Nothing is asserted about what Washington does once that knowledge exists.24

How long will the state hold it?

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    Thirty-five years after the final day of the fiscal year in which the department received the property — expressly notwithstanding any shorter limit in a statute, contract or court order.4

  • California

    Indefinitely, by statute: property received by the state under the Unclaimed Property Law shall not permanently escheat to it, a rule the Legislature wrote to overrule any court that said otherwise. There is no deadline to claim. The deadline that does exist runs the other way — ninety days to sue after the Controller denies a claim, or two hundred and seventy days from filing if it never decides.1113

  • Florida

    Not established here. Sahvelo has read Florida's dormancy provisions — whether a death sends the money to the state sooner, which Sahvelo has read for Florida — and not the provisions governing how long the department holds what it has received, so nothing is asserted about whether a Florida claim ever expires. Florida's own unclaimed-property search is free.9

  • Illinois

    Not established here. 765 ILCS 1026/15-1302 governs finder agreements and says nothing about how long the State holds property or whether a claim ever expires. Sahvelo has not read the Illinois custody provisions and does not assert either way — ask the State Treasurer's unclaimed property division, and search their list yourself first.14

  • Michigan

    Not established — but Michigan answers a more useful question, which is how the finder found you. Once an account has been with the administrator for at least twenty-four months and is worth ten thousand dollars or more, the State may sell the name, the last known address, the relationship code and the value to a registered locator in searchable form. A letter about unclaimed property in Michigan is therefore not evidence that anybody did detective work — and the same list is free for you to search.16

  • New Jersey

    Indefinitely, and the deadlines that would have killed the original claim do not help the holder either. The money goes into named State trust funds, administered and invested by the Treasurer and used to pay claims duly presented and allowed; nothing in the section releases it back to the State on a clock. Two of the funds pay most of the money out each year — seventy-five per cent of unclaimed county deposits back to the county, and the same share of unclaimed electric and gas utility deposits to a statewide energy assistance organization — and the claim survives that: where the county fund cannot pay, the unpaid claim becomes an affirmative obligation of the county. Separately, the expiry of any period fixed by contract, statute or court order for making the underlying claim does not prevent the property being presumed abandoned or relieve the holder of the duty to report and hand it over. What is heavier in New Jersey than elsewhere is the heir claim: an heir of somebody who died intestate must produce substantial credible evidence of heirship, evidence that a diligent investigation to locate ALL the heirs has been concluded, the names, last known addresses and relationships of every heir found, and a release and refunding bond indemnifying the administrator and the State against claims by the others. Payment then goes to the heirs in their intestate shares rather than to whoever filed.•2526

  • New York

    Indefinitely — and New York makes every recovery firm say so, in twelve-point boldface, in the agreement it asks you to sign.10

  • North Carolina

    Not established here. G.S. 116B-78 governs the agreement rather than the custody. What it does establish is worth knowing anyway: a finder may receive cash on your behalf but may not negotiate or deposit a check made payable to you, tangible property is delivered by the Treasurer directly, and securities are re-registered in your name.18

  • Ohio

    Not established here. R.C. 169.13 governs finder agreements and says nothing about the holding period. Sahvelo has read R.C. 169.02, which sets when property becomes unclaimed funds, and not the custody provisions — so no claim is made either way. The Ohio Division of Unclaimed Funds publishes a free search.19

  • Pennsylvania

    Not established here. 72 P.S. 1301.11 governs the report and the agreements to recover, and says nothing about how long the Treasury holds property. Sahvelo asserts nothing from that silence; Pennsylvania Treasury publishes a free search.20

  • Texas

    Not established here. Tex. Prop. Code 74.507 governs the fee and says nothing about the custody period. Sahvelo asserts nothing from that silence. The comptroller runs a free search and, under this section, is the office you deal with directly rather than through anybody.21

  • Virginia

    Not established here. Va. Code 55.1-2542 governs finder agreements only. Sahvelo has read 55.1-2507, which sets a five-year abandonment clock for life insurance money, and has not read the custody provisions — so nothing is asserted about how long the Commonwealth holds what it receives.22

  • Washington

    Not established here. RCW 63.30.780 and 63.30.790 govern finder agreements. Sahvelo has read RCW 63.30.130 on when a company is treated as knowing an insured has died, and not the custody provisions, so nothing is asserted about the holding period.24

Sahvelo has read four of these thirteen states straight through at their own sources. In the other nine, at least one answer above is marked not established — that mark is what Sahvelo knows, not a gap it is working around. Another state's rule may differ, and we would rather say that than generalize. Every state read here governs the AGREEMENT rather than the state's holding period, which is why the last row says not established for most of them: that is a statement about the section read, not about the law. In every state the state's own unclaimed-property search is free and is the first thing to do.

Questions people ask about this

  • A company wrote saying they found money belonging to my father. Is it a scam?

    Usually it is a real business rather than a fraud, and that is a different problem: the money it is describing can generally be claimed by you, free, from the same state program it searched. Do not sign anything before searching yourself. If you do decide to use them, the terms are capped — 10 per cent in California, 15 per cent in New York, 30 per cent in Arizona and Florida — and in California and Arizona an agreement signed in the wrong window is void however it is worded. In Florida the person filing for you must hold a Florida attorney, CPA or private investigator license and be registered with the department, which is a claim you can check. Treat the letter as a tip-off that a record exists, not as an offer.61038

  • We already signed with a recovery firm. Are we stuck with it?

    Not necessarily, and it depends on when you signed. In Arizona an agreement is void if it was made at any point between the property being presumed abandoned and twenty-four months after it reached the department. In California it is invalid if it was signed between the holder's report and the delivery to the Controller, or if it required you to pay before the claim was paid. In Florida anything that is not the department's own form is void. Separately, Arizona, California and New York all preserve the right to argue at any time that the consideration is excessive or unjust, and Arizona lets a court award you attorney fees for succeeding. Take the agreement and the dates to the state program before assuming the fee is owed.36710

  • Can we stop an account being handed to the state while the estate is still open?

    In Florida, yes, and it is worth doing. Once a holder learns of a death the property is presumed unclaimed two years after the date of death rather than after the usual five — unless a fiduciary appointed to represent the estate expresses an interest in it before then. An expression of interest is a low bar: a recorded communication with the holder about the account will do. So an executor who knows an account exists but cannot yet close it should tell the institution, in writing, that the estate is interested in it, and keep the copy. Elsewhere, assume nothing and ask the holder what its dormancy period is and when it runs from.9

  • Is there a deadline for claiming? People say the money is held forever.

    It depends on the state, and the two Sahvelo has read at the source disagree. New York's statute requires every recovery agreement to state, in boldface, that funds are held indefinitely by the Office of the State Comptroller. Arizona sets an outside limit: a claim may be filed within thirty-five years after the final day of the fiscal year in which the department received the property, notwithstanding any other time limit. Thirty-five years is long enough to feel like forever and short enough to matter when a family is working through a grandparent's papers. For California and Florida, ask the program rather than assuming — Sahvelo has not read their claim-period provisions at the source.104

  • The insurer has known about the death for months and has not paid. Can they just wait?

    Not in Arizona. If a life company learns that the insured or annuitant has died and the beneficiary has not been in touch within four months of the death, the statute requires the company to take reasonable steps to pay the proceeds. That is a duty on the insurer, not a courtesy, and it is worth naming when you call. Arizona also presumes that an unlocatable beneficiary's last known address is the same as the insured's — which is why an insurance benefit often ends up escheated to the state where the person who died lived rather than where the beneficiary lives, and why the beneficiary's own state is the wrong place to search first.5

  • Which states do we need to search?

    Every state they lived or worked in, and it is worth going back further than feels reasonable — a utility deposit or a final payroll check from a job in the 1980s sits in that state's program with the address of the time. Search former and maiden names too, and the names of anyone whose estate they inherited, because property they never collected may still be recorded under the original owner. Then search the state where they died and, if the question is insurance, the state where they lived rather than where the beneficiary lives.15

  • California turned down our claim. Have we lost the money?

    No. California does not take permanent ownership of unclaimed property, so there is no deadline by which the money must be claimed and nothing stops you filing again with whatever the denial asked for — usually a document proving the death or the relationship. What a denial does start is a separate and much shorter clock: a court action against the Controller must be brought within ninety days of the decision. The same section covers the other failure, silence: if the Controller has not decided within a hundred and eighty days of filing, you may sue, and must do so within two hundred and seventy days of the filing. So read a denial for what it asks for, refile if it is asking for evidence, and treat the ninety days as the deadline only if the disagreement is about the law.111312

Where this sits in the process

Before this

These produce something this topic needs.

This makes possible

Finishing this unblocks these.

  • Taxesmoney recovered after the estate has been valued may still be estate income and has to be reported

Related

  • Finding life insurancestate programs are one search strategy there, and unpaid policy proceeds are one of the largest categories held
  • Identity theftthe same public record and obituary that a finder uses is what a thief uses
  • Bank accountsa dormant account is a frequent thing that escheats, and telling the bank the estate exists can stop it
  • Safe-deposit boxesunpaid box rent is its own escheat route, and the box is where savings bonds turn up
  • Being an executorsearching for unclaimed property is part of gathering the estate, and the expression of interest is the executor's move
  • The final accountingproperty found after the accounting is filed has to go somewhere, and that is a reason to search before closing

Sources

Each state's own statute on locator agreements and claims, California's rule against permanent escheat and its appeal deadlines, Florida's dormancy rule, Arizona's duty on life insurers, and Treasury's notice withdrawing its savings-bond search.

  1. NAUPA — What is unclaimed property?

    What unclaimed property is, the dormancy period, and that searching is free.

    unclaimed.org Checked 2026-08-12

  2. TreasuryDirect — Treasury Hunt withdrawn 30 September 2025

    Treasury Hunt withdrawn on 30 September 2025, and the claim route that replaced it.

    treasurydirect.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  3. A.R.S. §44-327 — agreement to locate property

    Arizona: the twenty-four-month void window and the thirty per cent cap.

    azleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  4. A.R.S. §44-317 — filing a claim with the department

    Arizona: ninety days to decide, thirty days to pay, thirty-five years to claim.

    azleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  5. A.R.S. §44-302 — property presumed abandoned, and the insurer's duty on death

    Arizona: the life insurer's duty four months after a death, and the address presumption.

    azleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  6. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1582 — agreements to locate unclaimed property

    California: the ten per cent cap, the no-advance-fee rule and the invalid window.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  7. Fla. Stat. §717.135 — recovery and purchase agreements, fees and costs

    Florida: the department's exclusive forms, the thirty per cent cap and the reduction.

    flsenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  8. Fla. Stat. §717.124 — unclaimed property claims, and who may file them

    Florida: who may file a claim for a claimant, and the sixty-day withdrawal trap.

    flsenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  9. Fla. Stat. §717.102 — property presumed unclaimed, and the two-year rule on death

    Florida: five years generally, two years from a death, and the expression of interest.

    flsenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  10. N.Y. Aband. Prop. Law §1416 — restriction on agreements to locate abandoned property

    New York: fifteen per cent, notarization, and the boldface disclosure that funds are held indefinitely.

    nysenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  11. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1501.5 — property shall not permanently escheat to the state

    California: no permanent escheat, so no deadline to claim.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  12. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1540 — payment of claims, and who is an owner

    California: only an owner may file, heirs and the estate representative count, 180 days, no interest.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  13. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1541 — action against the Controller, and its deadlines

    California: ninety days to sue after a denial, two hundred and seventy if the Controller is silent.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  14. 765 ILCS 1026/15-1302 (Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: when agreement to locate property void)

    Illinois: the 10% cap, the anti-assignment rule and the license requirement from 2026.

    ilga.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  15. MCL 567.256 (Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: agreement to compensate for recovery of property)

    Michigan: a 24-month window and no cap of any kind.

    legislature.mi.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  16. MCL 567.256a (Receipt of unclaimed property account information by locator; registration)

    Michigan: how the State sells the list that produces the letter.

    legislature.mi.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  17. N.J.S.A. 46:30B-106 (Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: unenforceable agreements)

    New Jersey: three tiers, and why 35% is available at all.

    lis.njleg.state.nj.us Checked 2026-08-19

  18. N.C.G.S. 116B-78 (Agreement to locate property between property finders and owners)

    North Carolina: $1,000 or 20% whichever is less, and the licensed investigator's signature.

    ncleg.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  19. Ohio R.C. 169.13 (Agreements to pay a fee to locate or recover unclaimed funds)

    Ohio: the two-year ban on making contact, and what breaking it costs the finder.

    codes.ohio.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  20. 72 P.S. 1301.11(g), (i), (j) (Disposition of Abandoned and Unclaimed Property Act: agreements to recover)

    Pennsylvania: 15%, and the registration number that decides enforceability.

    patreasury.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  21. Tex. Prop. Code 74.507 (Assistance of claimant; fee for recovery)

    Texas: 10%, and why a percentage-taking finder may not file your claim.

    statutes.capitol.texas.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  22. Va. Code 55.1-2542 (Agreements to locate reported property; penalty)

    Virginia: thirty-six months in which seeking a fee is unlawful.

    law.lis.virginia.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  23. RCW 63.30.790 (Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: agreement to locate property void, when)

    Washington: five per cent, the lowest here.

    app.leg.wa.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  24. RCW 63.30.780 (Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: agreement to locate property enforceable)

    Washington: the two numbers the agreement has to state.

    app.leg.wa.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  25. N.J.S.A. 46:30B-88 (Periods of limitation no bar)

    New Jersey: contract, statutory and court deadlines are no bar.

    lis.njleg.state.nj.us Checked 2026-08-20

  26. N.J.S.A. 46:30B-77 (Filing claim; another state excluded)

    New Jersey: the four things an heir of an intestate decedent must produce.

    lis.njleg.state.nj.us Checked 2026-08-20

Sources last reviewed 2026-08-13. Where a source is marked pending re-verification, the page says so wherever the claim appears.

Quoted from each state's own statute and from TreasuryDirect. Deliberately not covered: the other forty-six state programs, whose caps and windows differ again; the claim deadlines in California and Florida, which Sahvelo has not read at the source and therefore does not state; the mechanics of claiming as an estate rather than as an heir in each program; and the federal holders other than Treasury — the PBGC's unclaimed pensions, the FDIC's insured deposits from failed banks and HUD's mortgage insurance refunds — whose current pages were not reachable when this was researched.