Buyer beware: If a business offers to help you retrieve unclaimed property for a fee, you might be paying for something you can do by yourself at no cost. Managing editor Tami Roleff reports on a website where you can find out if the State of California has money that’s owed to you…
A listener came to Z107.7 recently with a letter from a private asset finder company that said for a fee, it would help him reclaim money he was owed from various businesses. But you can claim any money the state is holding for you at no cost. How does the state get your money in the first place? The owner may have forgotten a bank account exists, or moved and did not leave a forwarding address. In some cases, the owner died and the heirs had no knowledge of the stocks or insurance policy. So then the business is required to hand over the unclaimed property to the state to hold until the owners can be located. You can check the website yourself to see if you’re owed money at www.claimit.ca.gov.
