Q & A
What exactly is unclaimed property?
Unclaimed property (sometimes referred to as abandoned) refers to accounts that have had no activity generated or contact with the owner for a given period of time, usually 1-5 years or longer. The rightful owner of unclaimed property can be an individual or a corporation. Common forms of unclaimed property include savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed dividends or payroll checks, refunds, traveler’s checks, trust distributions, insurance payments or refunds and life insurance policies, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments, utility security deposits, mineral royalty payments, and contents of safe deposit boxes.
Why are these properties unclaimed?
Each state and many federal agencies have enacted unclaimed property statutes that strictly prohibit companies from retaining funds that can’t be delivered to their rightful owner. These laws uniformly require companies to turn undeliverable funds over to a state agency to be held in a trust. The state agencies must then make a diligent effort to locate the rightful owners. Most states will hold lost funds until the owner has been located, returning them at no cost or for a nominal handling fee upon filing a claim form and verification of your identity.
Can I or a representative for my company search for the unclaimed funds?
Yes you can. There are several free websites that can assist you with your search, including MissingMoney.com and Unclaimed.org. Both of these sites contain the official collective records from most state unclaimed property programs, and have been officially endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA).
Are there disadvantages to handling a search ourselves?
There may be. Companies seeking to comprehensively locate and recover their corporate unclaimed property assets must overcome an array of limitations inherent in the current system. Asset recovery websites have severely limited capabilities, including not being able to account for potential misspellings, abbreviations or acronyms. Even after unclaimed property assets have been located, the administrative tasks associated with recovering them can overwhelm most organizations.
How long does it take to recover a company’s funds?
The amount of time necessary for recovering funds can vary widely. It is not uncommon for some states to pay within a matter of days, while others may take several months. Boomerang works closely and diligently with each state’s unclaimed property administrators to ensure the fastest recovery of funds possible.
What is a Locator?
Locators can be either a person or a company that helps locate and recover unclaimed funds for a fee.
Why use Boomerang Asset Recovery?
The sole focus of Boomerang Asset Recovery is on identifying, locating and recovering the unclaimed property for Fortune 500 companies. Ironically, some Asset Recovery companies make recovery a secondary priority, choosing instead to devote more of their resources towards providing legal and accounting services. Boomerang has developed a set of unique and proprietary search technologies that are capable of comprehensively locating hard to find corporate unclaimed property. Our technology-driven processes address the “dirty data” issues that severely limit the success of standard search efforts. In addition, our capability to search historical and current business names and addresses is unparalleled. Once unclaimed property has been found, Boomerang solutions will assist in filing claims and manage and track the claim to final payment, thereby eliminating your need to supervise and administrate the process.
How does Boomerang get paid?
Boomerang takes a simple commission on the total amount of assets that we successfully recover. Our commission covers the cost of the entire process, including asset identification, location and recovery. There are never any hidden charges or additional fees. Most importantly, we do not get paid until our client has been paid, making this a risk-free proposition for them.