Bank accounts & uncashed checks
Closed savings and checking accounts, uncashed payroll, refunds and vendor cheques.
What Counts as Unclaimed Property
If a business held money or property for you, lost contact, and could not reach you for the dormancy period, it was turned over to the State Controller. Here is what that usually is.
Last reviewed Written from State Controller, State Controller data, Unclaimed Property Law Everything here is checkable without asking us.
The Four with Their Own Process
Stocks & securities
Shares, bonds, dividends and mutual fund holdings. Always notarized, whatever the value.
Safe deposit boxes
The contents were inventoried and sold. You are claiming the proceeds, not the objects.
Insurance proceeds
Life insurance benefits, annuity payments and premium refunds.
Estates of Deceased People Are a Separate File
If you are looking for a relative who has died, the record may not be in the main file at all. The State publishes probated estates separately, naming the decedent and the heirs the court identified. How that file works, and why the fee rules on it are different.
Also Held, and Handled the Same Way
Utility and rent deposits. Security deposits from a landlord or a utility company, unreturned when you moved and the forwarding address failed.
Trust and escrow funds. Balances left in escrow after a property sale, or in a trust account after a matter closed.
Mineral and royalty interests. Royalty payments on land or mineral rights, often inherited without the heir knowing the interest existed. Volume in California is small but the amounts can be significant.
How Anything Ends Up Here
A business holds money that belongs to you — a balance, a refund, a deposit, a cheque never cashed. Contact is lost. After a dormancy period fixed by statute, generally three years in California, the holder is required to report the property and transfer it to the State Controller.
What counts as contact is narrower than people assume. Interest posting is not contact. A statement being mailed to you is not contact. It has to be something you did.
What Changes When It Transfers
- Interest generally stops. The Controller is a custodian, not a bank. A balance reported in 2009 is the same figure today.
- Safe deposit contents are sold. What the State holds is the auction proceeds, not the objects.
- Securities may have been sold. You receive the proceeds of that sale, not the current market value.
- The claim is now against the State. Not the bank, not the insurer — with different proof requirements.
What Does Not Come Here
Real property does not escheat this way. Neither do most retirement accounts while the custodian can still locate you, nor property held in an active trust, nor anything with a living joint owner still transacting. Federal money — tax refunds, savings bonds, veterans’ benefits — is held by federal agencies, not by California.
Why the Category Matters to a Claim
It decides the evidence. A cash claim under $1,000 may need no notary at all; a securities claim always does, whatever its size. An insurance claim may turn on who the beneficiary was rather than who the policyholder was. Reading the page for your category before you file will save a round of correspondence with the Controller.
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.
Sources
This page is written from the public record. Read the originals rather than taking our summary of them.
- California State Controller — Unclaimed Property
- State Controller — published property records
- Unclaimed Property Law — Code of Civil Procedure § 1500 et seq.
We are a private firm. We are not the State Controller’s office, not affiliated with it, and not endorsed by it.
From the knowledge base
How This Actually Works
- 16 Oct 2026 Unclaimed Property Records: What Holders Must Keep California does not state a fixed retention period in the statute text we rely on, but a holder that cannot produce the…
- 15 Oct 2026 When Your Company’s EIN Changed: Finding Property Under the Old Name When a company is acquired, the State Controller's unclaimed property records stay filed under the legal name reported at the time, not…
- 15 Oct 2026 Why California Requires Notarized Unclaimed Property Claims California requires notarization for any cash claim of $1,000 or more, and for every securities or safe deposit box claim regardless of…
- 14 Oct 2026 The Two-Sided Business Audit for Unclaimed Property A California business can turn up twice in the State's unclaimed property records: once as the rightful owner of old refunds, dividends…
- 14 Oct 2026 Suspended California Corporations and Unclaimed Property A suspended California corporation may still appear on the State Controller's unclaimed property file, but the Controller will not release payment until…
- 13 Oct 2026 Owner of Record vs. Actual Owner: What the Name Really Means Owner of record is the name a company or bank reported when it handed unclaimed property to California, not a verified current…
- 13 Oct 2026 The Unclaimed Property Liability You Inherit in an Acquisition When a company acquires another, it also acquires that company's unclaimed property history: uncashed checks, dormant accounts, and any unreported liability now…
- 12 Oct 2026 California’s Two Unclaimed Property Reporting Calendars California holders follow one of two reporting calendars. Life insurance companies file their notice report before 1 May and remit property between…
- 12 Oct 2026 Table of Heirship: What It Is and When You Need One A Table of Heirship lists each heir's relationship to a deceased owner and their proportional share of an estate. It matters most…
- 11 Oct 2026 What California Does With Your Money While It Waits California does not spend, invest, or time-limit unclaimed property. The State Controller holds it in custody under the property's reported dollar value,…
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