Received a "Potential Private Retirement Benefit" letter from Social Security? How to decode the letter and who to contact, if necessary: Potential Benefit letter.

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."

From the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators:

"Unclaimed property consists of accounts and other financial assets that have been inactive for a certain period of time. Types of unclaimed property include: checking and savings accounts, uncashed payroll checks, uncashed stock dividends, insurance payments, inactive stock brokerage accounts, utility deposits, refund checks, money orders, traveler’s checks, mineral proceeds, and life insurance proceeds.

"Each state and U.S. jurisdiction has an unclaimed property law that governs the length of time before a specific type of asset must be turned over to the state for safekeeping. Companies or Holders of potential unclaimed property are required by state laws to re-establish contact with the owner of the property. If attempts to contact the owner are unsuccessful, the property is transferred to the custody of the state for safekeeping and eventual return to the rightful owner.

"Most states participate in MissingMoney.com -- a free website, sponsored by NAUPA, from which you can search participating state’s databases for unclaimed property. MissingMoney.com will display any states in which there is a match, and provide information and links to the official government websites for beginning the claims process."

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.

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.

Go to the official MissingMoney website and check every state or province where you have ever lived, worked, or had a postal address: 
https://www.missingmoney.com 

Be sure to try variations on the spelling of your first and last names.

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 multiple accounts (such as at transfer agents for spun-off companies) – and may not have received cash payouts for Micro Focus or Perspecta.

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. (BTW, with stock you can recover what the state sold it for -- but not the actual shares or subsequent stock spinoffs or payouts.)

Even though the name and address on the account are current and you are receiving stockholder notices, members report that neither cashing dividend checks, receiving direct deposits, 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.

(Oct 1, 2024.)