Why are Asset Recovery Specialists portrayed in a bad light?

There is over $400 Billion dollars available in unclaimed property departments in all 50 states.  Approximately, $33 Billion of that money is from tax sale and mortgage foreclosure overages.

States call us Money Finders and pass laws putting limits or “capping” how much money can be made from helping people locate funds that they did not know existed.

States like to say that companies like ours and people involved in this type of business are piranhas or sharks that prey on the unsuspecting public taking advantage of them when they need help and are the most vulnerable, especially after a property has been taken through a tax sale or mortgage foreclosure.

We are not Money Finders and are not, (in most cases) subject to those types of laws. Money Finder laws are for money that has been escheated and is at the state level. The money that we are helping people with is usually located at the county level.

Escheatment: Every State requires financial institutions to report when property has been abandoned or unclaimed after a specified period of time. When money is transferred to the state level from the county level. If the Surplus Funds or Excess Proceeds balances have remained unclaimed for the period of time specified by State law (which varies from State to State), the county must report the account to the State where the account is held. The State then claims the overage balances through a process called "escheatment."

 The funds that we locate are not found on websites that are free to the public to check, but are found through lists that we acquire through means of investigative research that take time, money and resources.

We typically earn from 30-50% of the Surplus Funds or Excess Proceeds (if we are successful in our collection abilities) by locating and tracking the people entitled to these overage funds. At no time do we collect up-front fees or money from these individuals.  Any expenses that are reimbursed to us come from money collected.  If we fail to collect, then the individuals do not owe us anything.

Counties that receive and hold onto these overage funds are supposed to make a “concerted effort” to reach out and get hold of the people due these funds.  This effort for some is sending out a letter to the last known address, which… you guessed it, was the tax sold or foreclosed home. Many times, the county or agency doesn’t have to make any effort at all.

In many states, once the money has been escheated, if it is not claimed within a certain period of time, that state gets to keep the funds and use them for their own purposes.

With that being said, if you were the state, how much effort would you actually expend to locate the owners of the funds?

Are we really the bad guys here?  We’re the ones making the effort to find the money and the people it belongs to.  They don’t want to make the effort because they want to keep the money for their own purposes.

 Who are really the bad guys?