You can charge up to 30% commission as an Arizona unclaimed money finder.

With $300 million dollars being held, that is $90 million in commission up for grabs!

AND

as an Arizona unclaimed money finder, the State will send you a separate check for your commission!

That is huge!

That’s the good news. The bad news is you have to be a licensed private investigator to locate unclaimed money in Arizona.

However, it is not that difficult to become a private dick in Arizona. You need to be sponsored by a current private investigator agency and it costs about $74 dollars in licensing fees.

Best of all, right from the Arizona licensing website, “At this time, there are no experience or training requirements to become a P. I. Employee.”

So anybody can do it. For 30% commission, it’s definitely worth the extra effort to get the PI license.

Also, and very important, just because you live in Arizona, doesn’t mean you can’t look for unclaimed money in other states!

This is when you have to ask yourself “do I want to be lazy, or am I going to be motivated and get out of my seat and do something good for myself?”

It’s all up to you.

Click here for more information on getting your private investigators license.

You need to be registered with the state to locate unclaimed money in Arizona. Arizona calls unclaimed money finders “heir finders” or “asset locators”.

Whatever name they use is fine with me if they’re going to let us charge 30% to find unclaimed money!

The following information is summarized from the Arizona Unclaimed Money website:

            Arizona Unclaimed Money Finder Information

• The State of Arizona Department of Revenue Unclaimed Money Section publishes the names and last known addresses of unclaimed money owners on the website www.missingmoney.com
• There are no other unclaimed money finder lists available (hard copy or electronic).
• Information about the source, value, or nature of unclaimed money is considered confidential and will only be released to official claimants who have provided proof of ownership.
• The Department will issue a separate check, not to exceed 30% of the total payment, to you for the percentage of property assigned to you by the claimant as payment. You must provide a signed copy of your contract with your claimant.
• You are only legally entitled to collect a fee if the property has been held by the Department of Revenue for over 2 years
•  A signature by the claimant is required on the claim form unless the finder has a specific power of attorney. In that case, the Arizona unclaimed money finder can sign the claim form.
• As evidence of your authority as an individual to act on behalf of a company as its employee, such as private investigations firm, in this transaction an additional durable power of attorney that meets the guidelines or a completed form AZ-285UP is required.
• Official photo identification of client and Arizona unclaimed money finder is required.
• Joint owners must file a claim together unless one is deceased. In that case a death certificate is required. If the joint owners are divorced, then a divorce certificate is required.
• If you are representing the heir or beneficiary of a deceased owner, you are required to prove that your client is an individual that the State of Arizona recognizes as having lawful authority to collect the estate.
• If the decedent did not have a Will, the estate was less than $50,000, and your client is an intestate heir, your client may complete the Section’s Affidavit of Collection of personal property

 

 

This all seems like a lot of information, but it’s really not that difficult. Most of the unclaimed money accounts are from actual living people actually living at the address listed on the unclaimed money account.

For whatever reason, they weren’t contacted and the money was turned over to the state.
Click here to learn more about becoming an unclaimed money finder

The terms for becoming an Arkansas Unclaimed Money Finder are pretty simple. They only have a couple of requirements that matter:

1. You cannot charge more than 10% of the amount of money found.

2. The money must be held for at least twenty-four months before you can contact an owner and charge a fee for locating the money.

With $170 million worth of unclaimed money being held in Arkansas, at 10%, that is $17 million up for grabs!

Here are the complete terms regarding finders from the Arkansas Unclaimed Property Act:

8-28-225.Agreement to locate property.

(a) An agreement by an owner, the primary purpose of which is to locate, deliver, recover, or assist in the recovery of property that is presumed abandoned is void and unenforceable if it was entered into during the period commencing on the date the property was presumed abandoned and extending to a time that is twenty-four (24) months after the date the property is paid or delivered to the administrator. This subsection does not apply to an owner’s agreement with an attorney to file a claim as to identified property or contest the administrator’s denial of a claim.

(b) An agreement by an owner, the primary purpose of which is to locate, deliver, recover, or assist in the recovery of property is enforceable only if the agreement is in writing, provides for a fee of not more than ten percent (10%) of the recovery, clearly sets forth the nature of the property and the services to be rendered, is signed by the apparent owner, and states the value of the property before and after the fee or other compensation has been deducted.

(c) If an agreement covered by this section applies to mineral proceeds and the agreement contains a provision to pay compensation that includes a portion of the underlying minerals or any mineral proceeds not then presumed abandoned, the provision is void and unenforceable.

(d) An agreement covered by this section which provides for compensation that is unconscionable is unenforceable except by the owner. An owner who has agreed to pay compensation that is unconscionable, or the administrator on behalf of the owner, may maintain an action to reduce the compensation to a conscionable amount. The court may award reasonable attorney’s fees to an owner who prevails in the action.

(e) This section does not preclude an owner from asserting that an agreement covered by this section is invalid on grounds other than unconscionable compensation.

Click here to view the complete Arkansas Unclaimed Property Act

The following question is found on the Arkansas’ unclaimed money site frequently asked question page

Should an Owner Hire an Unclaimed Money Finder?

This is their answer:

We encourage owners to contact the Unclaimed Property Division directly to search for funds before signing a contract with a finder. The Unclaimed Property Division will refund only to the owner or their heirs and will pay no claim where an Arkansas Unclaimed Money Finder is charging a fee in excess of 10%.

We strongly discourage revealing information about an owner’s account to a finder or third-party agent to protect the integrity of the account.

But if the person does not know they have money being held for them, don’t you think it would be a good thing to use an unclaimed money finder?

Oh yeah, that’s a good point!

I added that last section! But it’s true! Anyone looking for unclaimed money in Arkansas would already know if they had money coming to them and wouldn’t need an unclaimed money finder. There are plenty of people out there that don’t know though!

This is such an easy business and this is where you come in.

This business is about getting a list of unclaimed money, using the search tools found on the internet to locate people, and then contacting them and helping to return their money.

There really isn’t much more involved.

If you are interested in becoming an unclaimed money finder, please click here

You can charge 10% as an Alabama Unclaimed money finder!

In the past five years, over $125 million dollars in unclaimed money was returned to its rightful owners or their heirs in Alabama.  $125 million dollars sound like a lot, but that breaks down to $25 million per year.

With almost half a billion dollars being held by the state that is only about 5% of what is actually owed.

Obviously the state cannot do it all themselves.

That is where unclaimed money finders come in. Unclaimed money finders locate people owed money by the State and help reunite them with their unclaimed money.

These people aren’t difficult to find. They’re not hiding, they’re not criminals, they are just normal people like you and me that don’t know that they have money being held for them.

Once you help them get their money back, you can charge them a commission which is usually a percentage of what they have gotten back.  In Alabama, you can charge a 10% fee of any money that you get back.

If you want to become an Alabama unclaimed money finder, they make it pretty easy for you. There is only one paragraph dedicated to it in their Unclaimed Property Act documentation (see below):

Section 35-12-93: Agreement to Locate Property

“An agreement by the owner with the primary purpose of locating, delivering, recovering or assisting in the recovery of property is enforceable only if the agreement is:

(a) An agreement by an owner, the primary purpose of which is to locate, deliver, recover, or assist in the recovery of property that is presumed abandoned, is void and unenforceable if it was entered into during the period commencing on the date the property was presumed abandoned and extending to a time that is 24 months after the date the property is paid or delivered to the Treasurer. This subsection does not apply to an owner’s agreement with an attorney to file a claim as to identified property or contest the Treasurer’s denial of a claim.

(b) An agreement by an owner, the primary purpose of which is to locate, deliver, recover, or assist in the recovery of property, is enforceable only if the agreement is in writing, clearly sets forth the nature of the property and the services to be rendered, states that the property is in custody of the State of Alabama Treasurer’s Office, is signed by the apparent owner, states the compensation fee percentage of the value of the amount to be claimed, and states any other compensation to be deducted.

(c) If an agreement covered by this section applies to mineral proceeds and the agreement contains a provision to pay compensation that includes a portion of the underlying minerals or any mineral proceeds not then presumed abandoned, the provision is void and unenforceable.

(d) Total compensation in an agreement covered by this section may not exceed 10 percent of the value of the amount claimed.

(e) This section does not preclude an owner from asserting that an agreement covered by this section is invalid on grounds other than unconscionable compensation. It is the sole responsibility of the owner to enforce this section.

(Act 2004-440, p. 755, §1; Act 2013-91, p. 192, §

To view the whole Alabama Unclaimed Money summary click here: Alabama Unclaimed Property Act

Here are some facts regarding Alabama unclaimed money:

• There are currently over 3.4 million properties currently available to be claimed worth over $465 million.
• Since 1996, residents of Jefferson County, Alabama alone have received payments of over $32 million from 61,785 claims.
• The average amount paid per claim for 2018-2019 was $1,664.20.
• The average amount paid per claim since 1996 is $508.53.

The below question is taken from the Alabama unclaimed money website:

I received information from a company that said that they could help me get my property for a fee. Should I use them to help me file a claim?

Answer: No. These companies can not do anything for you that you can not do on your own for free. There is no charge for the services that the Treasurer’s Office provides. Our staff will be happy to assist you with your search and claim for free.

That’s all well and good if you know you have money or you know where to look for it, but what about the millions of people that don’t know they have unclaimed money waiting for them?

Click here if you are interested in becoming an Alabama unclaimed money finder.