The letter arrives out of nowhere, usually on official-looking letterhead: a company claims you are owed money and offers to recover it for a fee. Millions of Americans receive pitches like this every year from heir finders and asset-location firms. A typical letter names a specific dollar amount, cites a state treasury or comptroller’s office as the source, and includes a contract asking the recipient to assign 10% to 35% of the recovered funds as payment. The tone is urgent, sometimes implying the money could be forfeited if the recipient does not act quickly. What most of those letters leave out is that the money is already waiting, the search to find it costs nothing, and state and federal rules strictly limit what any private finder can charge if you do hire one.
As of June 2026, more than $80 billion in unclaimed property sits in state treasuries nationwide, according to estimates from the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). That figure has climbed steadily over the past decade as forgotten bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, life-insurance payouts, and old utility deposits continue to pile up faster than owners reclaim them.
Every state offers a free search
Before paying anyone a dime, any person can run a search at unclaimed.org, the centralized portal NAUPA maintains with direct links to every state’s official unclaimed-property database. The U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service has described the site as an “excellent resource” built by state unclaimed-property professionals and available at no charge.
If a search turns up a match, the owner files a claim directly with the relevant state treasurer or comptroller. The process typically involves submitting proof of identity and, in some cases, documents showing a connection to the property, such as a prior address or a relationship to a deceased account holder. There is no filing fee. In most states, there is no deadline either: the money stays on the books indefinitely, waiting for its rightful owner.
How state fee caps work
When a private finder does contact someone about unclaimed property, the fee that finder can charge is governed by state law. The caps vary widely, and knowing your state’s limit is the single best defense against overpaying.
California (10% cap): Under Cal. CCP §1544 and guidance from the State Controller’s Office, any investigator, asset locator, or heir finder who helps recover unclaimed property already reported to the state may charge no more than 10% of the value returned. The Controller’s office states plainly in its public guidance for private investigators that owners are never required to hire such a service and can always file a claim directly at no cost.
Illinois (10% cap): The state’s Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, codified at 765 ILCS 1026/15-1302, makes any agreement providing compensation above 10% unenforceable except by the apparent owner. Purchase or assignment structures designed to produce profit above that threshold are outright prohibited. The statute also includes “void period” windows that restrict when a finder can enter into an agreement after property has been delivered to the state.
New York (15% cap): The state Comptroller’s office runs a free search and claims program with no time limit. Separately, under NY Abandoned Property Law §1412, New York caps fees charged by Abandoned Property Location Service Providers at 15% of the recovered amount. The Comptroller’s office warns consumers to verify any finder’s claims before signing a contract.
Florida (up to 30%): Florida Statute §717.135 allows finders to charge up to 30% in total fees, costs, or net gain from purchase agreements. The state mandates the use of state-adopted agreement forms and voids any unauthorized contracts. Even at the 30% ceiling, the mathematical result is that the owner keeps at least 70% of the recovered property.
These four states illustrate the range. Some jurisdictions are far more restrictive, and a handful layer on additional rules about when finders can make contact, what disclosures they must provide, and how long an owner has to cancel an agreement after signing.
Federal rules add another layer
Most unclaimed property is held at the state level, but a smaller pool of federal financial assets also goes unclaimed. Under 31 U.S.C. §3718, federal agencies may contract with private firms to locate owners of certain assets, but the statute requires that recovered funds be paid directly to the agency or the owner, not routed through the finder. Compensation to the locator is handled on the government side of the transaction, meaning the finder cannot deduct fees from the owner’s proceeds. For the narrow category of federal assets covered by this framework, the cost to the owner is effectively zero.
That said, the federal statute applies specifically to agency-authorized recovery contracts, not to all unclaimed federal money. Consumers looking for unreturned IRS refunds, for example, should go directly to the IRS “Where’s My Refund” tool, which is free.
What consumers should watch for
Heir finders and asset locators are not inherently fraudulent. In some cases, they track down heirs who genuinely have no idea they are owed money, particularly when the property belonged to a deceased relative or when the owner has moved across state lines multiple times. The service can be legitimate, and fees that fall within state caps are legal.
The risk is that consumers sign agreements without ever learning the free alternative exists. Common pressure tactics include language suggesting the property could be “lost” or “tied up indefinitely” without the finder’s help. In reality, most states hold unclaimed property indefinitely, and a letter from a finder is not a deadline. There is no ticking clock.
Before signing anything, consumers can protect themselves with three steps:
- Search first. Visit unclaimed.org or the relevant state treasury website to confirm whether property exists in your name or a relative’s name.
- Check your state’s fee cap. If a finder is asking for more than the legal maximum, the agreement may be void under state law.
- File the claim yourself. The process typically requires a form, proof of identity, and sometimes supporting documents. It does not require payment.
Where the FTC and CFPB fit in
State treasurers and attorneys general handle most unclaimed-property enforcement, but two federal agencies also play a role in policing the finder industry. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act to pursue companies that use deceptive or unfair practices in commerce, which can include heir-finder solicitations that misrepresent deadlines, overstate fees, or impersonate government agencies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) may become involved when finder activity intersects with financial products or services, such as when a locator firm offers to purchase an owner’s claim outright in exchange for a lump-sum payment that is far below the claim’s face value. Neither agency publishes a dedicated enforcement tracker for unclaimed-property finders, so the volume of federal actions in this space is difficult to quantify.
Gaps in enforcement and public data
For all the statutory protections on the books, there is remarkably little public data on how well they work. No multi-state dataset tracks the actual fees heir finders collect relative to statutory maximums, so it is unclear whether most finders charge at or near the legal ceiling or whether competition pushes real-world fees lower.
Enforcement statistics are similarly scarce. None of the major state programs examined here publish data on how frequently regulators discipline or prosecute asset locators that exceed fee caps, use unapproved contracts, or solicit owners during restricted time windows.
Consumer awareness is another open question. State treasurers and controllers promote their free claim services through websites and periodic outreach campaigns, but no comprehensive survey has measured how many people contacted by a finder realize that a no-cost option exists. Some owners may view a fee-based service as a convenient shortcut. Others, especially those unfamiliar with government claims processes or living in a different state from where the property is held, may feel pressured into signing quickly.
Until regulators publish better data on recovery rates, claim timelines, and the share of property returned with and without paid assistance, the question of whether heir finders provide a genuine service or simply monetize freely available information will remain difficult to answer with precision.
How the 10%-to-30% cap range plays out in a real claim
Consider a concrete scenario drawn from the kind of case state comptrollers describe in their public outreach materials. A woman in Illinois receives a letter from an asset-location firm informing her that her late father left a $4,200 life-insurance payout that escheated to the state years ago. The letter includes a contract assigning the firm 20% of the recovery. Had she signed, the agreement would have been unenforceable under Illinois law, which caps finder fees at 10%. Her maximum legal exposure would have been $420, not the $840 the contract demanded. Instead, she searched the Illinois State Treasurer’s I-Cash database, confirmed the match, filed a claim with a copy of her father’s death certificate and her own ID, and received the full $4,200 at no cost within several weeks.
That pattern repeats across states. The dollar amounts vary, but the dynamic is consistent: the free claim path exists in every jurisdiction, the fee caps set a hard ceiling on what any finder can legally collect, and the owner always has the right to bypass the finder entirely. The money is already yours. It is sitting in a state database, attached to your name, earning nothing for anyone. The only real question is whether you will pay a stranger a cut of it for telling you it is there.
