Unclaimed Financial Assets

Unclaimed financial assets are money and investments whose owners have not been in contact for a long time and cannot be traced: dormant bank accounts, uncashed cheques, unpaid dividends and forgotten investment balances. Most countries require holders to try to reach the owner and then transfer the assets to a public body after a set period, while the owner keeps the right to reclaim them. In the United States this is done state by state through unclaimed property laws, under which banks report and hand over balances, a process known as escheat, usually after a dormancy period of around three to five years. In the United Kingdom, the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 let banks pass accounts untouched for 15 years to Reclaim Fund Ltd, and the Dormant Assets Act 2022 extended the scheme to other financial assets. Also see deposit account.