Unclaimed Property Law is designed to return unclaimed property to owners or to their heirs. These people have either forgotten about the property, or in some instances did not even know of its existence.
The State does not receive any of this "abandoned" property until it has been held by the organizations reporting it for seven years after the last contact with the named owners.
The State begins its efforts to contact the owners as soon as the property is reported to us. The State Controller publishes the names of owners in a newspaper in the county of their last known address. In addition, the State Controller also mails a notice to the named owners at their last known address.
Current lists are also distributed to main libraries and interested TV and radio stations.
Microfilmed records of all accounts that have not been claimed are maintained in our office and are open for public review on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 to 4:30 p.m. These microfilmed records have also been made available for purchase, (See Exhibit "3" for cost and ordering instructions.) The success of the unclaimed property program is evident. Last year alone, almost $10 million dollars were restored to owners as a result of program effort.
In addition to unclaimed property, we also receive Estates of Deceased Persons. These come to us under provision of the Probate Code. Microfilmed listings of the estates are also available for review or purchase. (See Exhibit "3" for cost). Unlike abandoned property accounts, which are held in perpetuity, these estates do permanently escheat after a period of time and are no longer available to claim after a specified date.
Estates with named heirs in the amount of $1,000 or greater are subject to judicial escheat. After we have held the money received on these estates for a period of five years, we send a list to the Attorney General's Office. Their office publishes the list, again verifies with us that there has been no activity on the account, and then initiates a court order to affect permanent escheat. Five years from the date of this order we then complete the escheat action. Thus, on these estates the property is subject to claim for 10 years after receipt of funds by our office.
Estates with named heirs under $1,000 and all estates with no named heirs are subject to administrative escheat. The estates under $1,000 with known heirs escheat 10 years after we receive the money - the estates with no known heirs' escheat 5 years after receipt of money.