The amount of money being held by unclaimed fund administrators across the nation is startling. We put the number well over $100,000,000,000. That’s 100 hundred billion dollars!

There is a conflicting dual mandate with these State programs:

1. marshal ever increasing amounts of money and hold it as custodian to protect the consumer’s interest with the goal of eventually returning the funds to its owner;

2. contribute meaningfully to the State’s annual revenue requirements.

These two major aspects of the administration’s platform are irreconcilable. And it is, in part, the basis of why claiming funds can be so frustrating.

Its the reason claimants and profession recovery agents are required to have original notarized documentation; its the reason court orders are requested for small dollar amounts even though there are legitimate legal paths for non judicial resolutions; its the reason beneficiary designations require months long inquiries; Its the reason a whole industry of third party auditors and compliance agents has sprung up over the last 20 years; the list could go on…

For now these programs have remained relatively unknown, and they likely will remain so for a lot longer that they should, despite the information revolution which has dematerialized so many aspects of life from the physical to the digital realm, and made information access so readily available. The distrust Americans have in the wake of so many telemarketing, phishing, spamming, identity theft, and other scams, is one of the major reasons why the recovery of unclaimed money is so debilitated.

And while the technology offered for initiating claims has advanced, the processing and payment remains dated; and the regulations favor the States’ ability to seize and custody the majority of the funds in the program, but not to recover them with ease.

In the future, folks will self custody their monetary energy. Bitcoin offers a glimpse of this new reality. Self custody means there is no intermediary, no bank, no transfer agent, no third party involved in the monetary transactions of the individual. The individual is the only one that will control his assets; they cannot be seized. See the article below for insight as to what this may look like.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-germany-password/police-seize-60-million-of-bitcoin-now-wheres-the-password-idUSKBN2A511T

In the future, the States’ will have a much more limited ability to seize the individual’s assets for the “benefit” of the greater populace. But the government needs more resources moving forward, not less. Social Security, although a federal program, will run out of money in 2034, which is indicative of the state of affairs in government finances.

Where will the additional resources be found?

The utility of unclaimed funds programs to help fill budget requirements is a relatively new interpretation of the law, but its growth over the last 30 years is remarkable. We can be certain that faced with any existential challenges to this revenue source, State’s will continue to evolve and keep this train rolling as long as possible.