East West Bank Unclaimed Property: $94.5M Held by California

• East West Bank reported 29,211 unclaimed property records to California worth $94,546,819 in total.
• Checking accounts make up the largest share: 18,601 records worth $61,950,740.
• There is no deadline to claim this property; the State holds it until the owner or their heir comes forward.
• A recovery firm's fee on property reported under §1530 cannot exceed 10 per cent of what is recovered, and nothing is owed unless the Controller pays the claim.
• Claims by heirs of a deceased accountholder may fall under probate rules rather than the 10 per cent cap.

Why would East West Bank have sent my money to the State?

Banks in California are required by law to report and transfer deposit accounts, cashier’s checks and official checks that have gone dormant for a set period, typically because a statement came back undeliverable or no activity was recorded for several years. This is not a sign anything went wrong at the bank. It is a routine holder obligation under the Code of Civil Procedure, and East West Bank is one of thousands of California holders that file these reports each year.

Once the funds are reported and remitted, East West Bank no longer holds them. The State Controller does, and the account no longer appears on the bank’s own systems. That is why a former customer calling the bank directly is often told there is no record of the account.

How much unclaimed property did East West Bank report?

Our index shows East West Bank turned over 29,211 records with a combined value of $94,546,819. The average record is worth $3,237, but the spread is wide: 1,384 of those records are worth $10,000 or more. The breakdown by property type is:

• Checking accounts — 18,601 records, $61,950,740
• Savings accounts — 4,311 records, $11,215,345
• Cashier’s checks — 1,970 records, $4,579,654
• Outstanding official checks — 1,548 records, $3,566,984
• Savings accounts/credit union shares — 1,329 records, $1,190,572
• Checking accounts, demand deposit — 553 records, $681,922

These six categories account for most of the total, with checking accounts alone making up almost two-thirds of the dollar value.

What does this look like for an individual account?

A dormant checking account is the most common reason an East West Bank customer ends up in the State’s files, followed by savings accounts. Cashier’s checks and outstanding official checks are a different situation: these are instruments the bank issued, often at a customer’s request, that were never cashed. If you once asked East West Bank for a cashier’s check and never deposited it, that is a plausible place to look.

Business customers are represented too, through demand deposit checking accounts and credit union share accounts. If your business banked with East West Bank and closed a location, changed its mailing address, or went through a merger, a dormant business account is worth checking for separately.

How do I check if I'm one of these 29,211 records?

The fastest way is to search our index, which covers 14,613,528 property records drawn from the State Controller’s published files. Search by your own name, a past or present business name, or the name of a relative. If you are searching on behalf of someone who has died, the matter may instead sit in the Estates of Deceased Persons File, which lists decedents, their heirs of record, and the probate case number.

What does it cost to recover an East West Bank account through us?

Property reported under Code of Civil Procedure §1530, which covers bank accounts and bank-issued checks like the ones East West Bank reported, is subject to a statutory cap: a recovery fee cannot exceed 10 per cent of what is recovered (CCP §1582(a)(2)(C)). That cap does not extend to estates that reach the State through county probate, which the Controller treats separately with no fee restriction. Our standard fee is 10 per cent, and we collect nothing before the Controller approves the claim and pays the owner. There is no upfront charge, and the law makes an agreement that requires one invalid.

You are also free to pursue the claim yourself without a firm’s help. We simply do the searching, documentation and filing for you.

What if the account belonged to someone who has died?

If the East West Bank customer has passed away, the claim generally runs through the estate rather than directly to an individual heir, and California’s probate rules, including the small-estate affidavit threshold, may apply. Who is legally entitled to inherit is a question for an attorney, not for us. What we can do is identify whether a matching record exists and help assemble the documentation the Controller requires from an executor or heir.

Is there a deadline to claim this money?

No. California places no deadline on claiming unclaimed property, and the State holds it indefinitely until the owner or their heir files a claim. The only exception is an estate that has been permanently escheated, where the State has taken title and no claim will be paid. Short of that, a checking account East West Bank reported years ago is still claimable today.

Questions People Ask

Figures on this page are from our copy of the State Controller’s published file as it stood on 8 October 2026. The State republishes the file weekly, so current totals will differ. Search is always against the latest copy.