If you have paper stock certificates. What to do: Stock Certificates

Unclaimed property

Member: "I found that a relative had failed to use up all of a gift certificate given her back in 2015, and the balance was sitting there. Getting that documentation needed for that was pretty painless."

Almost everyone has some small stray uncashed check somewhere. This is common, even for people who haven't changed their address in decades. For example, one member found an HP-related check that had been mailed to a misspelled street address with an incorrect zip code.

"Unclaimed or 'abandoned' property refers to property or accounts within financial institutions or companies -- in which there has been no activity generated (or contact with the owner) regarding the property for one year or a longer period. After a designated period of time (called the dormancy period) with no activity or contact, the property becomes 'unclaimed' and -- by law -- must be turned over to the state."
--National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators: What is Unclaimed Property?

For example, if a dividend check is not cashed -- and there are no other transactions initiated by you on the stock account -- by law, the "unclaimed" timer generally starts.

Before escheatment, a financial institution may classify an account as "inactive" -- which may have other consequences before escheatment.

You may be approached by companies claiming to have found money for you -- for example, a private investigator has been contacting ex-EDS folks. There is no need to pay anyone.

You can easily check the public state unclaimed property sites for lost shares, uncashed stock-buyout or dividend checks, and other stray money.

If you receive a notice of unclaimed property, respond promptly in order to prevent the escheatment of your asset to the state.

The key document for a US employee retirement or health plan is the legal Summary Plan Description (SPD). It includes plan details and an address at the employer for appeals. The current SPD takes precedence over any other written, online, or verbal information you may have been given -- but is still subject to change. The employer's plan administrator is required by law to provide the SPD upon request. How to obtain and decode: https://www.hpalumni.org/SPD-decode

Lost stock and uncashed stock-buyout or dividend checks.

You may now have stock in HP, HPE, Agilent, Keysight, or DXC in various accounts -- and may not have received cash payouts for Micro Focus or Perspecta.

Your accounts may be at employee stock purchase or option/incentive plan administrators, at transfer agents for spun-off companies, or at your brokerage. Perhaps old paper certificates.

Dividend payments and stockholder communications are sent to the address on file with the transfer agent. Your employer does not update that address for you.

As with bank accounts, the only sure way to avoid a stock account being declared "dormant" or treated as unclaimed property, is to make direct contact by phone or postal mail with each broker and administrator at least once a year. Otherwise, depending on state laws and the broker or administrator's policies, members report that your stock may be "escheated" -- turned over to a state as unclaimed property -- which can be very difficult to retrieve.

Even though the name and address on the account are current and you are receiving stockholder notices, members report that neither cashing dividend checks nor accessing your stock accounts online nor being in possession of paper certificates prevents escheatment. You may or may not be sent a postal notice of pending dormancy or escheatment.

1. Check any brokerage you use and with the current stock transfer agent and plan administrator for each stock. See Where's my stock?

2. Check with state unclaimed property sites for every state or province where you have lived or worked, as described above. Also check the state of incorporation and state of corporate headquarters for every employer (DE and CA for HP, DE and TX for EDS, etc.) State of incorporation for each stock is given in HPAA's State and Price table.

(Feb 14, 2024)

See also: Join the HPAA Finance Forum Employee stock, 401(k), pensions, and other financial issues from an ex-HP/HPE perspective.