What is unclaimed property?
Unclaimed property can consist of stocks, bonds, cash or other property that your corporation has in its possession that may have reached the legal holding period. In addition, safe deposit box contents are delivered as unclaimed property too. Under a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1967 and revised in 1995, personal property and money that has gone unclaimed for some time must be turned over to the Attorney General’s Unclaimed Property Division. Under state law, unclaimed property must be returned to the state after it has been left with a “holder,” such as a bank, insurance company, or other business or organization, and there has been no owner-generated activity in the account for a specific period of time and the company’s attempts to contact the owner have been unsuccessful.
A. Unclaimed property is any financial asset for which an owner has not generated activity for an extended period of time. This may include savings, checking, certificate of deposit accounts; payroll (wages, bonuses, commissions); stocks and bonds (uncashed dividends, interest checks, underlying shares principle); insurance proceeds; credit balances; customer deposits; travelers checks; money orders and other intangible interests or benefits.
Any financial asset with no activity by its owner for an extended period of time is considered unclaimed property. This includes unclaimed wages or commissions; savings and checking accounts; stock dividends; insurance proceeds; underlying shares; customer deposits or overpayments; certificates of deposit; credit balances; refunds; money orders; and safe deposit box contents.
Unclaimed property consists of bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds, and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned – that is, for which there have been no documented transactions or contact with the owners for a statutory period of time. In most cases, this period of time varies from 1 to 5 years depending upon the property type. There are over 100 types of property which may become unclaimed.
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