Upon the death of the owner, the decedent s family is often unaware that the decedent is the rightful owner of certain assets held by a business. Furthermore, custodial arrangements set up for minor children can lead to unclaimed property. Parents may establish an account for a minor and then forget about it. The child is rarely informed of the existence of the account, until possibly located by the business. Another major source of unclaimed property occurs upon a stock split or dividend issued by a company.
Shareholders sometimes fail to cash dividend checks.
There are unexchanged or undeliverable shares that occur from stock splits or mergers. Furthermore, unclaimed property can arise anytime customers overpay their accounts or send remittances with no indication as to which account to apply the payments towards. State laws governing unclaimed property dictate that a company must perform some due diligence in an attempt to locate the owner. If the owner can t be found for the statutory period of time, the property is classified as abandoned. Companies are required by law to report and transfer abandoned property to the state where the owner was last known to reside.