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Phoenix Equity Group
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Service detail

Unclaimed Property Recovery

Banks, employers, and insurers turn over accounts they can't return to their owners. Those assets sit with state treasurers until someone claims them.

Check for funds

What this is

When a holder of money — a bank, an employer, an insurer, a utility — cannot reach the owner for a set period, state law requires it to hand the property over to the state rather than keep it. This is called escheatment.

The state does not take ownership. It holds the asset indefinitely under the owner's name and publishes it in a searchable database, waiting for the owner or an heir to claim it.

Because the databases are public and free, this is the one category where most people genuinely do not need help. The claims that get stuck are the ones that cross state lines, sit under a maiden or misspelled name, belong to a deceased owner, or were denied for a documentation problem.

What could be waiting

Bank accounts & CDs

Balances left when an account goes dormant and mail stops reaching the owner.

Uncashed checks

Final paychecks, refunds, and vendor payments that were issued but never deposited.

Insurance proceeds

Life and annuity payouts where the beneficiary could not be located.

Security deposits

Utility and rental deposits returned to an address the owner had already left.

Retirement accounts

Old 401(k) and pension balances from employers that have since moved or closed.

Stocks & dividends

Shares and dividend checks held by a transfer agent under an outdated address.

Typical recoveries

$500 — $40,000

Most state-held items are small — a final paycheck, a utility deposit, a closed account balance. The larger figures come from insurance proceeds, brokerage holdings, and retirement accounts reported under an owner who could not be located.

Range, not a promise. Individual results depend on the record in your case.

Our process

01

We search the records

We pull the sale record, the docket, and the surplus ledger for the county. It costs nothing and obligates you to nothing.

02

We confirm you're the rightful claimant

Deed, title history, identification, and where the owner has died, the estate record naming every heir with an interest.

03

We prepare and file the claim

We file the state's claim form with the treasurer or comptroller holding the property, with identity, address history, and name-change or estate documentation attached, and answer the state's evidence requests.

04

The county or court pays you

Payment is issued on the disbursement order. Our 30% fee is deducted at that point and never before. No recovery, no fee.

*Our fees include the legal support given by our law partners who represent our clients to claim their surplus.

Questions about unclaimed property

How to file it yourself, free →If someone else has filed →

Want us to check the record for you?

A records search costs nothing and puts you under no obligation.

Start a records search