You can charge up to 15% as an Iowa unclaimed money finder.

However, you do need do be a private investigator to search for money in Iowa.

There are basically three things you can do regarding this:

1. Become a private investigator.

2. Find a private investigator to work with. You can use their letterhead, phone number, etc. and in return you can pay them a percentage of what you get back.

Update as of October 2012 I always mention you can partner with a private investigator and use their information.

Now, Iowa has become wise to that practice.

A person “may not use a subcontractor to fulfill the licensure requirement” and they “will not communicate with a private investigator that is not part of the finders regular business”

So you either have to have the private investigator become the main finder, or,prove that the private investigator works for you.

Go to Iowa Updated Finder Information to read the complete update.

3. Don’t search in Iowa. Just because you live in Iowa doesn’t mean you can’t search in other states.

If you are a private investigator, or working with one, then there are some pretty basic rules regarding Iowa unclaimed money finders.

All agreements with Iowa unclaimed money finders are:

When you ask for it, they send you an order from and a summary of the unclaimed money finder law. If you want, you can also view the complete Iowa Unclaimed Property Law here, but all you really need to know are the laws related to finders.Iowa actually makes their site fun with “The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt”!  If you want to get an idea of what someone has coming to them without ordering a list, you can go to the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt website and start your search there.

All you need to do is enter the first three letters of a last name and see what comes up. For instance, you can enter Raf and get “Rafael, Rafferty, Raftis, etc.” to come up. Then, you click on the box next to the name and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the details.

You can see how much they have coming to them and decide if you want to contact them or not. It’s very easy.

As I’m typing this, out of curiosity, I typed the last name “Howard” in to the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt

This person came up with over $3000

Primary Owner
E HOWARD
1122 HANCOCK DR Boone, IA 50036
Cash: $3,245.70
Shares: 0
Description: PROCEEDS FROM MAT’D POLICIES,E
Property Previously Held By NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.

and this person also came up with over $3000

Primary Owner
BERNICE HOWARD
1338 DES MOINES ST DES MOINES, IA 50309 Cash: $3,572.40
Shares: 0 Description: UNIDENTIFIED REMITTANCES Property Previously Held By NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.

That’s just one random name I entered in there. If you want, you can enter just the “How” of Howard and see how many more come up. Then, you just check off the boxes on the right to see the amounts.I’m going to leave these two up there just to see if anyone can find them or their relatives.

If anybody does, please go to the Contact Page and let me know so I can take it down.  Maybe I’ll put up a couple of new ones for someone to find after that.

As the Iowa State Treasurer says on the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt home page, every year millions of dollars are turned over to the state as unclaimed money. The state definitely does not have the resources or the manpower to return all of this money themselves.

This is where an excellent opportunity has developed.

If you are interested in becoming an Iowa Unclaimed Money Finder click here for more information.

You can charge 10% as a Connecticut Unclaimed Money Finder.  Connecticut owes over $300 million in unclaimed money.

The rules in Connecticut are pretty simple and the opportunities are great.

 

A finder must follow all laws and regulations while conducting business in CT:

1. A finder may contract with the rightful owner and not work with the unclaimed funds department. In this case, the Unclaimed Property Division will work directly with the rightful owner.  The rightful owner is the only one that will receive updates on the status of a claim and will receive payment directly from the Division.  The finder will have a contract with the rightful owner and collect their fee from the rightful owner.

2. The finder may contract with the rightful owner and obtain a limited power of attorney. In this case the Unclaimed Property Division will work directly with the finder.  The office will send a check in the name of the rightful owner to the finder.  The finder distributes the money in accordance with the contract.

3. In either case the contract must clearly state the following information:

a. The property identification number for each property to be collected from the Unclaimed Property Division
b. The value of each property to be collected
c. The total value of the claim
d. The fee to be paid to the finder, which by state law, may only be up to 10% of the total value
e. The total amount payable to the rightful owner after the finder fee is subtracted

4. If appropriate, the contract must clearly state the finder obtained a limited power of attorney from the rightful owner.

5. If the finder does not obtain a limited power of attorney, the Division does not require a copy of the signed and notarized contract since it is between the finder and the rightful owner.

6. The contract must be executed by each party to the contract and each signature must be notarized; the originally executed and notarized contract must be uploaded through a secure link on the state website or mailed to the Connecticut Unclaimed Property Division.

Please click here for the complete Connecticut unclaimed money finder statute.
That’s pretty much it.  Easy, right?

In 2019 Connecticut returned $32 million to 14,500 owners.

There is currently over $396 million being held for almost 900,000 owners.

That means Connecticut returned less than 10% of the unclaimed money being held, and millions more are added every year.

They obviously cannot return all of that unclaimed money themselves, despite their best efforts.

Hmmm…let’s see.

$396 million x 10% (the fee you are allowed to charge) equals $39.6 million.

That’s a lot of money to be made!

Would like to help return unclaimed money to it’s rightful owners in  Connecticut and make money in the process?

If so, then this might be  the perfect opportunity for you.

Please click here for more information on becoming a Connecticut Unclaimed Money Finder.

The only requirement for an Idaho Unclaimed Money Finder regards how long the money has been held by the State before you can contact the owner.

The unclaimed money must be held for at least 24 months before you can charge a fee for your service. Otherwise, the agreement is unenforceable.

There is no limit to the fee you can charge as an unclaimed money finder in Idaho. However, Idaho does not have an unclaimed money finder list for sale and the list you can access online does not give you the dollar amount, only an approximate of what it could be such as “more than $100”.

I do not recommend that you charge something like 50% because you will probably have a difficult time getting someone to sign up.

The most I would go is 33% (depending on the size of the account). If someone is not happy with that, there is always room to negotiate a lower price and if you go down to 20%, that works out better for you. I think 20% is more than fair for the amount of work you put in, which really is not much!
The following is taken from the Idaho Unclaimed Money website:

What is an unclaimed money finder? (Idaho Unclaimed Money Finders are called heir finders, but we’ll use money finders)

An unclaimed money finder is a company or individual who can assist the owner of unclaimed property with locating and claiming funds. Unclaimed money finders charge a fee, usually a percentage of the value of the property recovered, for their assistance. The State of Idaho’s Unclaimed Property Office provides this service free of charge.

It does not matter if it is free if the owner of the money does not know about it!

Are there any special rules in Idaho’s Unclaimed Property Law that apply to Idaho Unclaimed Money Finders?

Yes, under Idaho’s Unclaimed Property Law, no person or company is entitled to a fee for discovering abandoned property until it has been in the custody of the state for at least two years. Idaho does not have any special licensing requirements for unclaimed money finders.

Is there a limit to the amount or percentage that a Finder can charge for their services?

Idaho does not currently regulate finders or limit their fees, but if the funds have been held by the state for less than two years, the finder’s contract is unenforceable and the total amount will be remitted directly to the owner.

Does the State of Idaho sell the unclaimed property list?

No, finders can view an owner listing, searchable by owner name, on this web site.

Idaho currently as 57 million dollars being held in unclaimed money.  They definitely cannot return this money all by themselves.

 

 

Please click here if you are interested in becoming an Idaho Unclaimed Money Finder.

Please remember, even if you live in Idaho, you don’t have to search for money only in Idaho.  You can look in any other state you want.