Wisconsin as an “unclaimed property” website, where companies that owe you money are supposed to send that money if they can’t find you. A few weeks ago I did a search and found my uncle’s name. He died in 2009 and I was his estate administrator. At that time I had legal access to all his property, accounts, etc. But the estate has been long closed.
Do I have any right to recover that money? If not, I suppose the state will unltimately get it, because there’s no other relatives/heirs in the picture.
FYI, I have put in a claim for it, but it will probably be another couple of months until I get an answer from the state.
If you can prove that the money SHOULD have been part of your uncle’s estate I don’t see why they wouldn’t provide you (his executor) the funds to distribute as appropriate. I would contact someone in the department holding the money and explain the situation to them. I don’t see how it could hurt.
Same thing happened to me, in Wisconsin, too. A few years after my dad died, I noted there was unclaimed property at that website. I just followed the process at the time, filled out the forms they provided, sent a copy of the paperwork showing I was his executor and heir, and ended up with the money. A whole $79!
It might be worth your while to determine roughly how much money is in the account. In some states, they code the accounts with something like “Under $10”, “$10-100”, and “$100 plus”.
My husband was an heir to a stepgreatuncle. We received notification from a third party that there was an unclaimed account. I couldn’t figure out how much it was, but figured it was likely <$200. I couldn’t go through the claiming process since my husband was not executor (a non-heir third party was). Looking at the hassle involved – it involved sending death certificate, signed affidavits of all the heirs, etc. – we decided to let it go. I couldn’t see where the amount received would be worth the hassle.
Apparently the other heirs made the same determination. We never received anything.