| 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 Money Tracer
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