Unclaimed property

What it means

When an account, a refund, an uncashed check or an insurance payment goes untouched for a period set by state law, the holder must report it to the state. That is escheatment.

The state holds it and publishes a searchable record. In most states there is no deadline for an owner or heir to claim it.

Every state runs its own program, and searching one does not search the others.

Why it matters

Almost everyone who searches for a person who has died finds something, and it costs nothing to look. It is one of the few genuinely free things worth doing after a death.

It is also the reason to search every state a person ever lived or worked in, not only the one they died in.

When you are likely to meet it

• After a death, once the immediate work is done.
• When an old account or policy is mentioned and cannot be traced.
• When helping a parent organize their accounts.

How this varies by state

How long property must be dormant before it is reported, who may claim it, and what proof is required are set by each state's own unclaimed property law.

Related terms

• Death Master FileA federal record of reported deaths, used by insurers and institutions to identify account holders who have died.
• EscheatWhat happens when property nobody has claimed is handed to the state. In most cases the state holds it as custodian for the owner rather than taking ownership of it.
• EstateEverything the person owned at the moment they died, treated as one thing that has to be settled.
• Group life insuranceLife insurance provided through an employer, union or association rather than bought individually.
• Lapsed policyA life insurance policy that has ended because premiums were not paid — sometimes without anybody realizing.
• Life policy locatorA free search service run by the insurance regulators, which asks participating insurers whether a person held a policy.
• Non-probate assetSomething that passes to a new owner automatically, without a court.
• Pension Benefit Guaranty CorporationThe federal agency that pays pensions when the employer's plan has failed — and holds pensions nobody claimed.
• Retained asset accountAn account an insurer opens in the beneficiary's name instead of sending a check, holding the life insurance proceeds until they are drawn.

Official sources

The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.

• Unclaimed.org — every state's program, run by the state treasurers (opens in a new tab)

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Unclaimed property
• Finding life insurance