Unclaimed Fund

[debodun]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

When settling my mother's estate, the attorney that was helping me, informed me that there was an unclaimed fund in my mother's name on the State Comptroller's Web site. Since the value of the fund is unknown, the attorney would not assist me in claiming it citing it might me worth less that it would cost me to have her pursue it. There is another problem, though. The address shown on the fund is incorrect (e.g. the address shown is Maple St. in Flipville. There is no Maple Street in Flipville. However my mother once lived on Maple St. in Bilgeburg). I can't claim this fund unless I can prove a connection to this address, which would be impossible for a non-existent location. Any suggestion how to pursue this? Thanks.

 

[Betty]

Did you call the Dept. of Unclaimed Funds division of the State Comptroller's office? 1-800-221-9311 & tell them of no such street in Flipville (explain the situation to them)? Did you ask them what else you might be able to submit to prove ownership?

Here's a link with questions & answers on claiming unclaimed funds N Y.

WebHelp

Good luck to you. Without knowing the value of the fund, it would be hard to decide whether to tell the attorney to go ahead & pursue this for you/help you with this.

 

[Dandy Don]

After you have filed the claim, the unclaimed property office will inform you of the value of the asset, and if they don't do it automatically, you can ask them. Since probate will need to be opened for this asset, this is a simple project that you can do yourself, or if you don't have the time to take off of work, get a probate attorney to do it (the cost won't be exorbitantly expensive, as New York and all other states have a reasonable executor fee rate).

It appears that you have used fictional town names for your situation. Proving your mother's connection with a document that has the same address is going to be a bit difficult, somewhat of a catch-22 situation. Seems like they make it difficult for an heir to make a claim and maybe the state hopes that the money will remain unclaimed after a certain amount of time so that it will revert to the state government. Do a search on mapquest to see how close the 2 cities are to each other, just for your own information. This is a discrepancy that you should be able to easily explain on your claim form if necessary, and hopefully they will have common sense enough to make an attempt to understand it.

If you are unable to find documentation that shows the same or a similar address, I suggest you contact the insurance company where your mother had the policy--someone at the company may be able to produce her application or record of a premium payment or SOMETHING with her address on it.

 

[Betty]

If you are unable to find documentation that shows the same or a similar address, I suggest you contact the insurance company where your mother had the policy--someone at the company may be able to produce her application or record of a premium payment or SOMETHING with her address on it.

Dandy Don, the OP didn't say it was insurance proceeds/ins. pol. - we don't know what the fund is. Just because question was posted in the life ins/annuity forum, we can't assume it was life ins. It seems OP isn't sure at this time what the fund is.