Wisconsin unclaimed money generally include any financial asset that has had no activity by its owner for a period of 5 years or more. This includes savings accounts, checking accounts, uncashed dividends, stocks, customer deposits or overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, matured life insurance policies and uncashed death benefit checks. The law also provides that utility deposits, unclaimed wages and property resulting from business dissolutions be reported as unclaimed property after 1 year of inactivity. Wisconsin Unclaimed Property Act does NOT cover REAL ESTATE. In Wisconsin property becomes unclaimed or abandoned when there has been no owner activity in relation to the account for a period of 5 years AND when the owner cannot be contacted by the holder of that asset. A holder may be a bank, savings institution, credit union, insurance company or utility company. Wisconsin Unclaimed Property Act is administered by The Wisconsin State Treasurer.
Recently many people have become interested in locating unclaimed property owners in Wisconsin and assessing a finder's fee for their services. Wisconsin does not require that an heirfinder be licensed as a private investigator, but an agreement to locate, deliver, recover or assist in the recovery of property presumed abandoned which is entered into by or on behalf of the owner of the property must include a statement of the fee or other compensation to be paid by the owner, which may not exceed 20% of the actual value of the property recovered (sec. 177.35, Wis. Stats.).
One should never sign an agreement with a locator that asks for money up front.
