Claiming California Unclaimed Property From Abroad

Q: What does a California notary charge?

Under Government Code u00a78211, a California notary public may charge at most $15 per signature for an acknowledgment or a jurat. That cap applies to notaries acting in California; it is usually finding a notary, not paying one, that is the obstacle for claimants abroad.

The short answer

Living outside California, or outside the United States, does not bar you from claiming property the State Controller holds. The real obstacle is usually identification: claims of $1,000 or more in cash, and all securities and safe deposit box claims, must be notarized, which is harder to arrange from a distance.

Claims of $1,000 or more in cash, and all securities and safe deposit box claims, require notarization regardless of value.
California places no deadline on claiming property and does not require the owner to currently live in the state or country.
A California notary may charge at most $15 per signature for an acknowledgment or jurat, under Government Code §8211.
A recovery agreement must disclose the property's nature and value before the owner signs, and no fee can be collected until the Controller pays.
The 10 per cent fee cap applies to property reported under §1530; probated estates, which often involve heirs scattered across states or countries, fall outside that cap.

Does living outside California affect a claim?

People find their own name, or a parent’s or grandparent’s name, on a California unclaimed property record from all over the map. Some left California for Texas or New York thirty years ago. Some left the United States entirely and now live in London, Manila or Toronto. Others are heirs tracing an estate that passed through a California county’s probate court while they were living somewhere else. None of that changes whether the property can be claimed. California holds unclaimed property indefinitely until the owner or an heir comes forward, and nothing in the claim process ties that to a current address. What does change, once you live at a distance, is how hard it is to prove you are who you say you are.

Why does notarization become the real obstacle?

The State Controller requires notarization on certain claims regardless of how modest or large the holding is. Any claim paid in cash at $1,000 or more must be notarized. Every claim involving securities, and every claim for the contents of a safe deposit box, must be notarized no matter the value. A notary in California may charge at most $15 per signature for an acknowledgment or a jurat, under Government Code §8211. That fee is not the problem. The problem is finding a notary at all when you live outside the state, confirming the notarization will be accepted, and getting an original signed document back into the file without it going astray in the mail. For someone filing from within California this is routine. For someone filing from abroad it is often the single step that stalls a claim.

What does the State require before anyone can claim?

Whoever files, and wherever they live, the law sets the same baseline. A recovery agreement with a firm like ours must be in writing. It must disclose the nature and value of the property, state plainly that the Controller currently holds it, and give the address where the owner could claim it directly. The owner signs only after seeing that disclosure. No fee can be collected before the Controller approves the claim and pays the owner. These rules exist because the State wants an owner, wherever they are, to understand exactly what they are holding and what help they are paying for before they commit to it. See what documents the State needs for the list the Controller asks for, since identification documents are usually what trips up a claim filed from outside the state.

Why do so many cross-border claims involve an estate?

A large share of the cross-border claims we see involve an estate, not a lone forgotten account. We currently index 37,166 probate estates reported to the State, of which 4,438 remain claimable, holding a combined $59,038,273 across 38 California counties. Heirs to those estates are frequently scattered — a sibling in Oregon, a cousin in Mexico City, an adult child who left California for a career abroad and has not been back since the funeral. Each heir typically needs to establish both their own identity and their relationship to the decedent, which raises the same notarization and document questions as any other claim, with the added step of proving the family link. See probate estates and the second State file for how that file works, and claiming as an heir or executor for what the Controller asks of an heir before paying out.

What can a finder fee cost you from abroad?

The law caps what a firm may charge to locate, deliver or recover property reported under Code of Civil Procedure §1530 at 10 per cent of what is recovered. That cap does not reach estates that arrive through county probate; the State Controller states there is no fee restriction on investigators filing for the heirs of a probated estate. Either way, the sequencing is fixed by law: an agreement cannot require payment before the Controller approves the claim and pays the owner, and an owner may challenge a fee at any time as excessive or unjust. We charge 10 per cent of what is recovered and nothing if nothing is recovered, which matters more, not less, when you are paying someone to run down notarization and document logistics you cannot easily handle from another country.

What should you do next if you live outside California?

If you are not sure a record is yours, start with a search of the 14,775,153 property records we index rather than guessing. If you find something, or you are tracing an estate rather than an account, our full-service recovery is built around the parts that are hardest to manage from a distance: confirming the record, assembling the identification the Controller wants, and handling notarization logistics so the file does not stall in the mail. Our fee is a flat 10 per cent of what comes back, owed only once the Controller pays.

Questions People Ask

Do I have to live in California to file a claim?

No. California does not require the owner or heir to live in the state, or in the country, to claim property the Controller holds. The property is held indefinitely until claimed, so there is no deadline tied to where you live. The practical difficulty is usually proving identity at a distance, not residency itself.

Why does my claim need to be notarized?

The State Controller requires notarization for any claim paid in cash at $1,000 or more, and for all claims involving securities or the contents of a safe deposit box, regardless of value. Smaller cash claims may not require it. Which rule applies depends on what the property is and how much it is worth.

Can a notary outside the United States notarize my claim?

That depends on what the Controller's office will accept for a given claim, which is a question for the Controller or for an attorney familiar with notarization across borders, not something we can answer in general terms. We can tell you which of your claims requires notarization and help you get the form into shape.

Is there a deadline to claim before I lose the property?

No. California holds unclaimed property indefinitely for the owner or their heirs to claim. The only exception is an estate that has been permanently escheated to the State, where title has already passed and no claim will be paid.

What does a California notary charge?

Under Government Code §8211, a California notary public may charge at most $15 per signature for an acknowledgment or a jurat. That cap applies to notaries acting in California; it is usually finding a notary, not paying one, that is the obstacle for claimants abroad.

What if the property belongs to a relative who died?

Estates that pass through a California county's probate court arrive at the Controller under the Probate Code rather than being reported directly, and heirs often need to establish both identity and relationship to the decedent. We index 4,438 such estates that remain claimable, holding $59,038,273 across 38 counties.

What does it cost to use an investigator if I live abroad?

Our fee is 10 per cent of what is recovered, charged only after the State Controller approves the claim and pays. No fee can be collected beforehand under California law. For a probated estate, the 10 per cent statutory cap does not apply, since that cap reaches only property reported under §1530.

How do I find out if I am owed anything before dealing with any of this?

Search our index of 14,775,153 property records first. If a record matches, the notarization and identification questions only come up once you move to actually file, so there is no reason to work through them before you know whether there is anything to claim.

Sources

Figures on this page are from our copy of the State Controller’s published file as it stood on 9 November 2026. The State republishes the file weekly, so current totals will differ. Search is always against the latest copy.

How You Are Protected

Our fee is capped at ten per cent of what is recovered by Code of Civil Procedure §1582, and nothing is owed until the State Controller has paid you. If we recover nothing, you owe nothing. Our recovery fee is never asked for up front — it comes out of money the Controller has already paid you. A booking deposit on an in-person appointment is a separate thing, and is credited back against anything you are charged.

California Unclaimed Property Services is a private asset recovery firm. We are not the California State Controller’s Office.