Unclaimed Property for Long Beach, California Residents

• The State Controller holds 183,055 unclaimed property records connected to Long Beach, totaling $162,637,238.
• The average Long Beach record is worth $888, but 1,803 records are worth $10,000 or more.
• Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Metlife Inc., and Wells Fargo Bank are among the largest reporters of Long Beach property.
• There is no deadline to claim California unclaimed property, except for estates the State has permanently escheated.
• A recovery fee for property reported under §1530 cannot exceed 10 per cent of what is recovered, and no fee is due unless the State pays.

How much unclaimed property is the State holding for Long Beach?

The State Controller’s unclaimed property file currently lists 183,055 records tied to Long Beach, with a combined value of $162,637,238. That figure comes from payroll checks, insurance refunds, dividends, safe deposit box proceeds, and other property that businesses were required by law to turn over to the State after losing contact with the owner.

Most of it is modest. The average record is worth $888, which reflects the many small refunds and outstanding checks that make up the bulk of the file. But the file is not uniform: 1,803 Long Beach records are worth $10,000 or more, meaning a meaningful share of the total sits in a small number of larger accounts.

These figures describe property reported under Code of Civil Procedure §1530, the ordinary unclaimed property statute. A separate category, estates that pass through county probate, is tracked in a different State file and is discussed below.

Which companies reported the most Long Beach unclaimed property?

A handful of large employers, insurers, and financial institutions account for a disproportionate share of the Long Beach total. The largest reporters currently indexed are:

• Metropolitan Life Insurance Company — 2,519 records, $4,656,340
• Metlife Inc. — 4,667 records, $4,574,441
• California Resources Long Beach Inc. — 3,818 records, $2,892,319
• Wells Fargo Bank Na (Apecs 1009) — 2,582 records, $2,255,864
• Prudential Financial Inc. Common — 1,999 records, $1,233,155
• Interinsurance Exchange Of The Automobil — 1,873 records, $389,342

If you worked for an oil or energy company in Long Beach, held a life insurance policy, or banked with Wells Fargo, these are the kinds of holders most likely to have reported something in your name.

What kinds of property make up the Long Beach total?

The property categories reported most often for Long Beach are:

• Securities — 7,532 records, $8,310,093
• Premium Refunds — 9,714 records, $2,988,799
• Misc Outstanding Checks — 8,244 records, $3,571,977
• Refunds Due — 7,880 records, $3,187,872
• Wages, Payroll, Salaries — 8,066 records, $2,644,205
• Other — 9,278 records, $4,284,123

Securities carry the highest average value per record among these categories, which is one reason a search is worth doing even if you assume any unclaimed property in your name would be trivial. A final paycheck or an insurance refund from decades ago can be small; a forgotten brokerage account can be substantial.

Is there a deadline to claim property held for a Long Beach resident?

No. California places no deadline on claiming unclaimed property, and the State holds it indefinitely until the owner, or the owner’s heirs, come forward. This is a state-level file, not a Long Beach city programme, so there is no local cutoff either.

The one exception is an estate that has been permanently escheated to the State, meaning the State has taken title outright. Property in that status is no longer recoverable. Most of the file, including nearly all of the Long Beach records described here, has not reached that point.

What does it cost to recover Long Beach unclaimed property?

For property reported under §1530, which covers the categories above, California law caps a recovery firm’s fee at 10 per cent of what is actually recovered. No fee may be collected before the State Controller approves the claim and pays the owner, and an agreement signed during the narrow window between a holder’s report and the State’s receipt of the property is invalid. We charge that 10 per cent, and nothing if nothing is recovered.

That cap does not extend to estates that reach the State through county probate. For those, the Controller states there are no fee restrictions on investigators filing for owners or heirs. If you are pursuing a Long Beach estate through probate rather than a standard §1530 report, the fee arrangement is a separate conversation, and it is one you should have before signing anything.

An owner can challenge any recovery agreement at any time as based on excessive or unjust consideration, regardless of what was signed.

How do I find out if any of this belongs to me?

The fastest way to check is to search our index of 14,800,558 State Controller property records by name. If something in the Long Beach file matches, we can walk you through what the State requires to pay a claim, including notarization for cash claims of $1,000 or more and for all securities and safe deposit box claims.

If the property in question belonged to someone who has died, the estate may instead need to be pursued through the separate probate estates file, which lists the decedent, the heirs on record, the county, and the case number.

Questions People Ask

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