Yes. However, challenges with financial asset location and recovery of lost financial assets in any one of the nearly 90 global databases has become increasingly complex and inefficient. The assistance of a professional asset locator and recovery service firm that knows where to look, can aggregate the data using technology, and is experienced in navigating the claim process is invaluable. And time can be of the essence where fees are charged by the government for maintenance of the asset records, thereby continually eroding their value. Some government agencies provide searchable websites for unclaimed property but these sites don’t always yield expected search results when they should.

Here are a few reasons:

∙ Online searches can be limited by the functionality of the websites. They were not designed for complex or multiple name searches, only for individuals looking for a specific name. Thus they only allow a single search at a time and often require an exact name match to return any results.

∙ Listings which contain misspellings, non-standard punctuation, abbreviations or acronyms will be missed with standard search techniques. This type of human data entry error is the biggest impediment to finding lost assets and is often the same reason that the asset was initially lost.

∙ A complete and comprehensive search would require identifying and accessing nearly 90 government databases in many jurisdictions, most of which are unknown or not easily accessible. Once lost assets have been identified, the recovery process can be administratively difficult and time consuming. Each jurisdiction has its own paperwork and claim processing system, there could be multiple types of forms for various types of assets, and they have very stringent thresholds for proof of ownership. Legislation imposes strict responsibility for proper disbursement of the funds held, so government employees are very careful about making sure the money goes to the rightful owners. Engaging a professional asset location and recovery firm is the most efficient and effective method of finding unclaimed dormant financial assets – and recovering them – in today’s economic climate.