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States and federal agencies are holding billions of dollars in unclaimed property
and missing money. Assets are considered legally abandoned when contact
with owners is lost - typically due to an unreported address change
or the expiration of a postal forwarding order, name change after marriage or divorce, and incomplete or
illegible records. These funds are
transferred to a government trust account in a legal process known
as escheat. Here they await your claim. The Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) estimates 3 million stock and mutual
fund shareholders are entitled to unclaimed shares
worth $10 billion. Additionally, $500
million in stock and mutual fund dividends go
uncashed each year. A wave of corporate
mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, share spin-offs and name
changes, has dramatically increased the amount of
lost stock and unclaimed dividends.
If
you're a stockholder in a mutual fund or company that
merged or was acquired, you may be entitled to
collect spin-off shares, cash distributions or
dividends from the restructuring, even if shares were
sold long ago. {Owners of AT&T, for
example, may be eligible to receive shares in nearly
a dozen other companies.}
Have
you been contacted by a professional asset tracer?
Did a deceased relative invest in stocks or bonds?
Were stock certificates lost or destroyed? In most
cases they can be replaced. Even if a mutual
fund or stock is no longer listed on an exchange do
not assume it's worthless - shares may still
have significant value, even if a company declared
bankruptcy!
Note: Perhaps the largest source
of unclaimed stock over the last several years has resulted from the
recent demutualizations of major life insurance companies, including
Metropolitan Life (MetLife), Prudential, John Hancock and others.
Demutualization is the process of converting a mutual life insurance
company, which is owned by its policyholders, into a publicly traded
stock company owned by shareholders.
Literally millions of
policyholders and heirs aren't aware they are entitled to claim
billions in demutualization compensation. When John Hancock demutualized, it did not have current
addressed for 400,000 policyholders. Prudential could not find 1.2 million
policyholders entitled to receive compensation, and Metropolitan Life
has 60 million shares of stock - worth some $3 billion - that have
gone
unclaimed.
Claims should be initiated as soon as possible, as unclaimed
stock may be sold by government custodians.
To
search for unclaimed stock - unclaimed shares,
missing distributions and uncashed dividends after a
merger, restructuring or reorganization, order our Special
Report: Unclaimed Stock Search
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