The Unclaimed Property Division sits in the office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General, Deborah B. Goldberg, and its job is described on the division page in a single sentence: it receives abandoned property from banks and other holding companies once they have been unable to reach the owners for three years, then gives the public the tools to find that property and prove it is theirs. The property covered runs to bank accounts, uncashed checks, stocks and dividends, insurance policies and the contents of safe deposit boxes, and it does not reach real estate or vehicles. The division's questions page extends the list to unpaid wages and commissions, underlying shares, customer deposits and overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, money orders, paid up life insurance policies, uncashed benefit checks and gift certificates, and repeats that land and houses are never part of it.
How much is waiting depends on which official page is open, and all three were read on the same day. The Treasurer's how to page says the Treasurer holds more than $2 billion and that one in ten people has property they do not know about. The search page says the division is holding over $2.4 billion for the citizens and businesses of the Commonwealth. The division's own website says Massachusetts is holding more than $3 billion and that more than $1 billion has been returned in the last five years. The division is at 1 Ashburton Place, 12th floor, Boston, answers on (617) 367-0400 from 8.45 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. on weekdays and takes claim questions by email. For Massachusetts records held locally, see the Massachusetts county pages.
- Timing: the Treasurer's guidance is that a claim takes about 180 days to process, with the status visible online throughout.
- Dormancy: three years without owner contact under Chapter 200A, and fifteen years in the case of traveller's checks.
- Search: the division's site by last or business name with a first name, city, postcode or property identifier to narrow it, or by telephone with staff doing the search.
- Finders: any agreement signed within 24 months of the property reaching the division is unenforceable, and the total fee is capped at ten percent with nothing added for legal or filing work.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Massachusetts's own systems: the Massachusetts Treasury unclaimed property division page, the Treasurer's find unclaimed property page, the Treasurer's searching for unclaimed property page, the division's unclaimed property website, the division's general questions page, the division's heir finders page, the division's reporting guidelines, the division's tangible property page, the division's voluntary disclosure agreement page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Searching, claiming and the 180 days
The Treasurer's guidance keeps the process to three steps: enter the name and address in the search form, select the entry that matches and start the claim, then enter what is asked for and submit. Anyone who would rather not use the website can telephone the division and ask staff to run the search. What happens next is where Massachusetts differs from the faster states. After submitting, the claimant gets an email from the division with instructions for proving the claim; some claims are approved automatically, but most need more information to verify that the claimant is the rightful owner or heir, and the Treasurer's own estimate is that it takes about 180 days to process a claim, with the status checkable at any time.
The division's site adds the narrowing fields that make a common surname workable, a first name, a city, a postcode and the property identifier, along with a document upload for a claim already filed and a status search that takes the claim identifier.
Heirs, estates and the words on the form
The claim form asks for a claimant relationship, and the questions page defines the two that cause the most confusion. An heir is a rightful heir of a deceased person whose name was reported to the division where the estate was not probated. An estate representative is someone claiming for a deceased person whose estate was probated, meaning the estate was overseen by a court of law. That single question decides which documents follow, so answering it correctly saves a round of correspondence in a process already measured in months.
The same page explains what aggregate reporting means for a searcher, since small amounts can be reported in a lump without the individual owner details, and sets out how the division tries to find owners in the first place: it publishes the names of all new owners who have securities, tangible property or an asset worth $100 or more in newspapers across the Commonwealth, posts outreach letters to every last known address, sends staff to fairs, expos, trade shows and other events, and runs an advertising campaign across television, radio, web and print.
The ten percent rule for finders
Massachusetts regulates heir finders through the statute and the regulations together, and the division's page publishes both. Section 13 of Chapter 200A makes any agreement to pay compensation for recovering reported property unenforceable where it is made within twenty four months of the payment or delivery to the Commonwealth. After that, an agreement is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the owner, discloses the nature and value of the property and the name and address of whoever holds it, and carries a fee no greater than ten percent, and nothing in the section stops an owner arguing at any time that a location agreement is based on excessive or unjust compensation.
The regulation at 960 CMR 4.06 adds the administrative layer: every heir finder dealing with the division must register on the Treasurer's form, disclosing previous business experience and any criminal record, with registration renewed every three years and a photograph identification supplied; no finder may register and represent owners if the same person or entity performs pre escheat due diligence work for holders; an original contract signed, dated and notarised must come with the first filing of a claim, handwritten agreements are not accepted, and the notarised agreement has to reach the division before claim forms are created; and no power of attorney filed by a finder is recognised for making a claim.
The division's own notes add that total fees are limited to ten percent of the reported amount with no additional legal or filing charges passed to the claimant, that finders may not generate claim forms on the site because only claimants can obtain them, and that it is not currently requiring the $10,000 performance bond the regulation allows.
Safe deposit boxes arrive untouched
Tangible property is handled by a dedicated department and under a rule that protects evidence of what was in a box. The tangible property page requires that the contents of safe deposit boxes and other tangible assets be sent to the division as they are, not replaced or converted into any other form of currency or legal tender, so a holder may not turn coins into cash or a check before delivery and may not swap old paper money for newer notes.
Deliveries are scheduled in advance between May 1 and June 30, from Monday to Thursday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., and must arrive with a completed verification form and all affidavits and inventory or drilling sheets, with the paperwork sent to the director of tangible property beforehand. Once the property is in, the division makes repeated attempts to find the owner or the heirs, and where nobody is found the property may be appraised and sold at public auction, with the proceeds held indefinitely for the original owner or the heirs to claim.
As in the other states that auction, the sale converts the property into money without ending anyone's right to it.
What holders file, and when
Chapter 200A requires business entities and others to review their records every year for unclaimed funds, securities or other property and to report what they find. The reporting guidelines define who that covers, including banking and financial organisations of every kind whether state or federally chartered, all business associations wherever located, domiciled or incorporated and whether or not for profit, and other legal entities including governments, political subdivisions, public authorities, public corporations, estates, trusts and nonprofit organisations.
What gets reported is any debt or obligation unpaid, or security undelivered, for three or more years after the owner should have received it or could have claimed it, for every owner who is a Massachusetts resident or corporation, and a Massachusetts corporation or resident must also report property where no last known address exists and property whose last known address is in a foreign country. The calendar runs in three tracks.
Ordinary holders close their period at June 30, perform due diligence on or before September 1 and report and remit by November 1. Life insurers close at December 31, do due diligence by March 1 and report by May 1. Tangible property closes at June 30 with due diligence by September 1, but is delivered the following year between May 1 and June 30. A business that has never filed at all can use the voluntary disclosure agreement, which is open to first time filers only and waives interest and penalties in exchange for a complete self audit going back at least nine years, with a detailed written narrative of the steps, procedures, samples and records reviewed, findings in the national reporting format, and payment by electronic transfer only after the agreement has been accepted.
Reading a Massachusetts result
A record here is property a company could not deliver for three years, listed under the name it held, so maiden names, business names and former addresses are each worth a search, and a traveller's check from decades ago may still be outstanding because that property type runs on a fifteen year clock. Once a claim is filed the realistic expectation is half a year, not a fortnight, and the division will say by email what else it needs. Nobody has to pay to claim, and an approach from a finder in the first two years after the property arrived is based on an agreement the statute makes unenforceable.
Questions about unclaimed property in Massachusetts
Related Massachusetts records
Massachusetts's other public records guides on this site are the Massachusetts background check guide for the state criminal record service, the Massachusetts court records guide for the trial court's public access, the Massachusetts arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Massachusetts county pages for every county office.