Unclaimed Property Explained

The Closest Thing to Free Money

U.S. State Treasury Agencies collectively hold more than $7 billion in corporate unclaimed property, with these funds growing by approximately 15% annually. Even more surprising, greater amounts of corporate assets are being turned over to various state treasuries than are being recovered by their owners.

CFOs working to generate cash for their organizations should not overlook the opportunity this represents. Significant gains can be achieved by successfully locating and recovering their company’s own unclaimed property assets. Such an endeavor can be mounted either by individuals within a company, or by relying on an asset recovery specialist like Boomerang Asset Recovery.

Special Note: While the rightful owner of unclaimed property can be either an individual or a corporation. Boomerang Asset Recovery exclusively serves only corporate entities.

Common Forms of Unclaimed Property

Checking or Savings
Account Funds

Stocks

Vendor Payments

Uncashed Dividends

Payroll Checks

Refunds and rebates

Life Insurance
Policies

Annuities

Certificates of Deposit

Certificates of Deposit

Why Are These Properties Reported as Unclaimed?

Each state and many federal agencies have enacted unclaimed property statutes that strictly prohibit companies from retaining those funds that can’t be returned to the rightful owner. By law these undeliverable funds must be turned over to a state agency for safekeeping in a trust. There are countless reasons why a corporation’s assets might end up being reported as unclaimed property. For instance:

Profusion and Confusion of Entity Names

Corporate Process Disconnects

Clerical Errors

As corporate umbrellas expand, individual entity names proliferate, change, or are terminated. The greater the number of current and expired entity names there are in play, the more it complicates the process of routing assets to their rightful owners.

Corporations employ a variety of disparate, unintegrated accounts receivable processing systems. Effective payment processing relies on accurate and up-to-date location and address change records. In this environment, even the slightest errors can result in lost assets.

Company names or addresses are easily and frequently misspelled. Mistakes also routinely result from the use of acronyms, non-standard punctuation and abbreviates. Any misstep leads to payments being returned to the issuing company…and eventually finding their way into a state treasury account!