Simple Searches Can Reveal Forgotten Finances
By: Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: December 2001
There it is—a stock certificate—found in that old carton under the stairs. Could it be valuable? Is the company still in business? Is there a fortune awaiting you?
Tracing company history is a daunting task, says Warren Anderson, founder of America West Archives, a Utah-based company that conducts research into old stocks.
"A lot of people will find uncancelled certificates after a death in the family," says Anderson. "When we move, we forget to tell the companies we own stock in. Certificates are put away; companies move, merge, change their names and are no longer listed on the stock exchange. So, when people want to find out what the company is currently doing, if the shares have any value, they contact us."
The process, says Anderson, includes scouring years of records, reference books and publications, many now out of print. The Internet is helpful if you want to look on your own, he says, but most of the information is too current to be of use.
"It's fun to find funds for shareholders. Most amounts of stock are usually a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Yet, it happens more often than people think that we can report good news," says Anderson.
UNCLAIMED ASSETS
You don't even have to uncover a stock certificate to justify a search for hidden finances. That is, every state maintains a database of unclaimed assets—including stock and dividend checks—and it's easy for you to conduct a search.
Liz Black did it just for fun. She went to the website of the state where she was born, found the link for abandoned property, typed in her maiden name and hit the search button.
The name was an unusual one, and she expected a "no matches found" response. But, there it was—plain as day—her name, accompanied by the address she remembered so well.
"There was this sense of euphoria, a rush of adrenaline. Oh my God, there's money for me, I've hit the jackpot!" says Black. "And, there was the additive of not knowing how much it is. There was screaming and dancing around."
But actually getting the assets would take some time and a lot of sleuthing.
First, Black had to file forms with the Secretary of State's office to prove she was the person to whom the money was owed. Since she had changed her name, that meant getting a marriage certificate from the county where she'd married.
Then came the tough part. She had to find an acceptable document to prove she lived at that address 30 years ago. There were several things that Black could use—receipts, a post-marked envelope delivered to the address with her name on it, a report card, bank book. "I couldn't find any of it," Black says. "Who keeps that kind of trash?"
Eventually, she found an old W-2 tax form, clipped to a tax return from a summer job she held after her freshman year in college. "I don't know why I saved it, but it was in my handwriting, and it had my address and maiden name," she says. "It was an official document."
It took a while, but "I heard back from the state that the record was being processed—a check for about $150. It could be a dividend check from stock my family had invested in, but I'm not sure," says Black.
Curious if the company still existed, Black has tried to find a record, but so far, no luck. She found similarly named companies on the Internet, but her assumption is it's out of business and there are no dusty stock certificates languishing about.
HOLDING ONTO YOUR STOCK
Of course, the best advice is not to lose track of your stock certificates or valuables in the first place, says Debbie Zumoff, executive vice president and compliance officer with Keane Tracers Service Corporation, a company that assists businesses in locating the owners of unclaimed corporate securities.
First, "always have a will. Keep an accurate record of your investments and share that inventory with a trusted professional, attorney, accountant or family member," Zumoff says. "Sixty percent of the folks we deal with, don't."
The problem becomes greater as people age, Zumoff says. "When we travel to a retirement home, we need to be sure the mail from our investment companies—income dividend checks and statements—follows us. If we don't communicate with the companies, the mail comes back as undeliverable, and that's a primary trigger for starting the clock that ends up with the asset being determined as abandoned."
A mail-forwarding order with the post office is not sufficient, Zumoff adds. "Deal directly with the people who maintain the records for the investment company, stockbrokers and mutual fund companies."
And, don't forget to "cash those dividend checks, no matter how small. A string of uncashed dividend checks are presumed abandoned, and some states will make a leap and consider the (stock) shares are abandoned as well," Zumoff adds.
"We have a lot of happy shareholder letters," says Zumoff, who expects another might be forthcoming as a result of a recent search for the owners of 75 shares of stock left behind by a woman who died, without a will, in the mid to late 1960s.
"Here we are 30 years later, and the stock split, the dividends were reinvested and there are over 8,500 shares in the estate and a lot of money," says Zumoff. "We had to probate four other estates under the estate of the original lady who never married, never had kids. But we're almost to the end and will have a check to distribute hopefully by Christmas time."
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