| Assets become legally abandoned
after the original owners or rightful heirs fail to
"communicate an interest" in them. Failure
to communicate an interest in an asset can arise
when you fail to: deposit a check, apply for a
refund due, make a deposit or withdrawal to a bank
account, exchange stock after a merger - even after a
statement or other official correspondence is
returned to the sender by the post office. The length of time that must
pass before an asset is considered legally abandoned - the dormancy
period" - is set by law. It varies with the type of property
involved, but generally runs one to five years. If, at the end of
the dormancy period, there has been no owner directed activity,
those left holding the assets - insurance companies, banks,
brokerages, trade and credit unions, employers and utilities -
transfer them to the protective custody of a government trust
account in a process known as escheat.
A declaration of
dormancy typically occurs with name changes after marriage or
divorce, expiration of a forwarding order after a move, as a result
of computer and clerical errors, and most often after the death of a
family member. Relatives are often unaware they're entitled to
collect an inheritance.
(Unclaimed asset
tracers often specialize in locating owners of unclaimed money and
abandoned assets before they are remitted to government custody.
Have you been contacted by a professional asset tracer demanding 25%
or more to recover unclaimed money? Since pre - escheat assets don't show up
in unclaimed property databases, they can be difficult to locate
without assistance. It is often possible, however, to locate
unclaimed money by going directly to sources used by professional
asset tracers.)
For an
unclaimed property search and to obtain information
on locating and claiming pre-escheat assets order our
Special Report: Unclaimed Asset Search
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