If you expect to make a lot of money as a money seeker (or asset location and recovery specialist), the first thing you’ll need to learn is to avoid dealing with funds held by the unclaimed property division. Lately, almost every state has passed laws capping finder fees at 5%, 10%, 15% or so, leaving very little room for independent money seekers to profit.
Nearly all property governed by these laws is held by the state’s unclaimed property division (sometimes called the Unclaimed Property Department). These records and funds are also frequently available to be searched online on the state’s website by anyone who knows how to use a computer. Too much visibility plus too little profit potential has turned many people away from the found money business.
So the first step to success is finding unclaimed funds that are being held. outside the state level. Just because something is a “state law” does not necessarily mean that it is the law for the entire state. In this case, state laws for the division of unclaimed property only apply to funds held there, at that agency. Funds held by county agencies, for example, are not governed by these finder fee restrictions.
The great thing about these funds is that so few people know they are available, or even exist, that hardly anyone is working on them. This means that if you can find these retained funds at the county level, you have a great chance to be the first to connect with their owners and get a contract for a 30-50% search fee.
It may be worth looking into some funds held at the state level for just a 10% fee. (After all, we could all use 10% of a $200,000 unclaimed fund, right?) But wouldn’t you rather earn 40% of $200,000? These county-level withheld funds frequently come from a variety of real estate foreclosures, and routinely run into the tens of thousands of dollars. If you’re serious about big finder’s fees, the only safe way to do it is to bypass the division of unclaimed property and go for funds that are outside state law.