(01-29-2001)
DEAR OWENZMA:
There MAY be a way for you to recover the money yourself, but your situation is a little bit complicated and some questions need to be answered first.
(1) Was the MONDEX CORP. firm that contacted you, is their office in Toronto, Canada or in the US? (Send me their mailing address and telephone number, please).
The Canadian office locates heirs based on case information they receive from all over the world (foreign countries AND the US), so it is possible that if you have a relative that died outside the US and named you as a beneficiary, there would be no record of these funds in the US and their services to notify you would be very valuable and worth their fee, although the 40% rate seems a bit too high. I will check on the fee limitations and get back with you if you will send me an e-mail message to my e-mail address shown below. I believe that you can refuse to sign any letter that mentions the 40% rate--send the letter back to them saying that you are only willing to pay 20%, and they will be forced to more or less agree to your rate, since they don't get paid until YOU recover your money. DO NOT PAY THEM ANY MONEY UPFRONT in order to get the information that they have--they should be willing to receive their fee AFTER you have been paid.
(2) Did they mention whose name the unclaimed monies were being held in--was it YOUR name or someone else's?
(3) Did they mention how much the monies are?
(4) Did they mention whether your check would be payable in Canadian funds or in US dollars?
(5) Do you have deceased relatives (within the past 5-10 years) who lived outside the US?
Send me your e-mail address and I can give you some other relevant information when the time is proper. There just MAY be some techniques we can use to find this money yourself.
SINCERELY,
[email protected]
