What the Law Says About Finder Fees

The Four Rules

• The fee may not exceed ten percent of the value of the property returned.
• The agreement must be in writing and must disclose the nature and value of the property, that the Controller is holding it, and the address where you can claim it yourself.
• It must be signed after that disclosure — not bundled with it, not before.
• No fee may be collected before the Controller has approved and paid the claim.

Two More Rules Worth Knowing

There is a short blackout window. An agreement is invalid if it is signed between the moment the business holding your property files its report with the State and the moment the property actually reaches the Controller. Once the Controller has it — which is when it becomes searchable, and when we would ever be talking to you — the window has closed. And county probated estates sit outside the ten per cent cap entirely, which is worth knowing if anyone quotes you a higher figure on one.

How to Use This

Ask any service that contacts you to state their fee, in writing, before you sign anything. Ask when they collect it. If the answers are not “ten percent or less” and “after you are paid”, you have learned what you needed to know.

The Statute

Recovery fees for California unclaimed property are governed by Code of Civil Procedure section 1582, part of the Unclaimed Property Law at section 1500 and following. It sets the ceiling and the conditions, and it is short enough to read for yourself. The current text dates from AB 2280 (Stats. 2022, Ch. 282), effective 1 January 2023 — which matters, because a good deal of what is written about finder fees online describes the version before it.

The Ten Per Cent Cap

An agreement to locate, deliver, recover or assist in recovering unclaimed property may not provide for a fee of more than ten per cent of the value recovered. The cap is on the total consideration, not on one line of it — a company cannot charge eight per cent plus an administrative fee and land at fifteen.

The Timing Rule People Do Not Know

Section 1582 draws a blackout window, and it is narrower than most people assume. An agreement is invalid if it is entered into between the date the business holding your property files its report with the State and the date the property is actually delivered to the Controller. The purpose is plain: it stops finders who watch incoming reports from reaching owners in the gap before the State can run its own outreach.

Once the Controller has the property, the window has closed and a fee agreement can be validly signed. That matters, because it is also the point at which the property appears in the public database — so in practice every property you or we can find is already past the restriction. If you have read elsewhere that you must wait a year or two after escheatment, that was the old law. It is not the law now.

What the Agreement Must Contain

Section 1582(a)(2) is unusually specific, and every requirement in it exists to make sure you can walk away:

The agreement is in writing and includes a disclosure of the nature and value of the property, that the Controller is in possession of the property, and the address where the owner can directly claim the property from the Controller.

Code of Civil Procedure §1582(a)(2)(A)

• It must be in writing and signed by the owner
• It must disclose the nature and value of the property
• It must tell you the Controller is the one holding it
• It must give you the address to go and claim it directly, without us
• It must be signed after you have received all of that, not alongside it
• The fee must not exceed ten per cent of what is recovered

Read that third and fourth item again, because they are the remarkable ones. The law requires a finder to hand you, in writing, the instructions for cutting them out of the deal. An agreement that does not is not merely poor practice — it is invalid. Ours carries all six, and so should anyone else’s.

What Happens if a Fee Exceeds the Cap

The excess is unenforceable. The agreement does not become void in its entirety — the part above ten per cent simply cannot be collected. Someone who has already paid more may have a claim to recover the difference, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for us.

Where the Cap Does Not Reach

There is one exception inside California itself. Section 1582 reaches property reported under section 1530 — the ordinary stream, where a bank or an insurer or an employer hands over an account nobody has touched. Estates of deceased persons that reach the State through county probate arrive by a different route, and the State Controller states plainly that there are no fee restrictions for investigators filing on behalf of the owners or heirs of county probated estates. If someone quotes you more than ten per cent, that is the only lawful reason for it, and they should be able to say so in those words.

Beyond that, section 1582 governs unclaimed property held by the California State Controller. It does not govern federal property, other states’ unclaimed property, class action settlements, or mineral interests held privately. Firms operating across several categories sometimes present a single fee schedule as though one cap applied to all of it. Ask specifically what a quoted percentage applies to.

Nothing Here Requires You to Hire Anyone

The statute regulates people who charge for this work. It does not suggest the work needs paying for. Claiming directly through the State Controller costs nothing and always will, and for a straightforward cash claim in your own name it is genuinely not difficult.