TREASURER BECK ANNOUNCES AUCTION OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY
Augusta, ME: Maine Treasurer Henry Beck announced today that his office, which manages Maine’s unclaimed property program, will begin sending thousands of tangible items for auction that may belong to you or your heirs. These items include coins, jewelry and other collectibles of value, excluding military medals or military decorations.
Each year, the Maine Office of the State Treasurer (OST) receives contents of safe deposit boxes considered abandoned by Maine’s banks and credit unions. Called “safekeeping,” the safe deposit boxes are presumed abandoned when the property and proceeds remain unclaimed by the owner for more than three years after the expiration of the lease or rental period on the box or other depository. By law, the contents of these safe deposit boxes become the care of the State of Maine, where they are held while the office searches for the owner(s).
The Treasurer’s Office utilizes many avenues of owner outreach. Telethons, direct mail, town hall outreach, press releases and partnership with the state elected officials are examples of the various methods used. Currently, the most effective tool is the State Treasurer’s searchable database at www.maineunclaimedproperty.gov where individuals can search their name and file a claim online.
When the amount of tangible unclaimed property exceeds the space to house it, the Treasurer’s office conducts an auction. The office has not conducted a formal auction in nearly twenty years, and therefore is exceeding physical space limits to store property. Property from these safe deposit boxes dates as far back as 1993 and as recent as 2018, and will become part of an ongoing online auction if the Treasurer’s Office is unable to find owners/heirs. Note that by law and practice, we never auction military medals or military decorations.
According to Beck, “Even though an incredible amount of due diligence has already occurred to find the rightful owners of this property, we have decided to advertise the names of those with tangible items that will be sent for auction if the owners or their heirs are not located,” he said. Full page advertising will occur in Maine’s largest newspapers on Thursday, September 7, 2023.
About safekeeping: Safe deposit box contents must be reported to the state where the contents are held.
Information on the contents of boxes located in Maine must be reported by November 1 of each year.
The contents of safekeeping are to be delivered to the Office of the State Treasurer no later than June 1 of each year. Once Auctioned, the cash value received from the sale will be available for the owner to claim.
About the auction company: The Office of the State Treasurer went out to bid for an auction company to provide auction services over the next five years. The winning bidder was Lone Star Auctioneers out of San Antonio, Texas. Lone Star has been providing online auction services to unclaimed property programs across the country.
.About Unclaimed Property: Unclaimed property consists of money and other financial assets that are considered lost or abandoned when an owner cannot be located after a specified period of time of inactivity. It includes items such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, life insurance policies, unpaid wages, stocks and dividends, refunds, and safe deposit box contents. Unclaimed Property does not include real estate, animals or vehicles.
Each and every year, tens of millions of dollars go unclaimed by Maine residents. These financial assets are turned over by thousands of national and local businesses and organizations by a law called MRSA Title 33, Chapter 45: Maine Revised Unclaimed Property Act. http://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/33/title33ch45sec0.html.
The Treasurer’s office holds these assets, free of charge, until claimed by the owner or heir. The State is currently holding over $310,000,000 in unclaimed property. In the month of June, 2,114 claims were made against unclaimed property totaling $2,940,533.08 in payments to Maine people. The highest single claim paid in the month of June was for $161,409 (from a bank account). In June of last year, 2,646 claims were paid totaling $2,171,671.11.
About the Office of the Treasurer: The Office of the Treasurer of State is established in Article V, Part Third of the Constitution of the State of Maine. The core duties of the Treasurer’s Office are debt management, cash management, trust fund administration and unclaimed property administration. Other major tasks assigned to the Treasurer are directorships on many of Maine’s quasi-governmental debt issuing agencies and distributions under the Municipal Revenue Sharing Program.
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