Illinois' Unclaimed Property Auction: Legal Insights and Key Highlights

The idea of an unclaimed property auction may conjure up images of the reality competition series "Storage Wars," in which treasure hunters bid against each other for ownership of repossessed storage units and all their contents.

The idea here is that one of these storage units may contain a genuine treasure that will bring the bidders a payout or, better yet, a great fortune.  

The A&E website provides a synopsis of the show, explaining that auctioneers lead the buyers through "unit after unit filled with all kinds of surprises." There have been 15 seasons and 305 episodes of this show over the years, making it a real hit for the network and showing that there is great interest from the public in this sort of modern-day treasure hunting.

Now, something akin to Storage Wars will become a reality for Illinois hopefuls, courtesy of the Illinois State Treasure's online auction of unclaimed property. 

The office of the Illinois State Treasurer Michael W. Frerichs issued a press release to inform the public that such an auction was going live on the Illinois State Treasure Unclaimed Property Auction site on Monday.

The auction will take place over the course of the week, and there will be 100 lots auctioned. The items being offered for bidding include things like a 14-karat gold charm bracelet and other valuable and historic jewelry, a 1783 Spanish Milled Dollar, among other collectors' coins, paper money, furniture, watches, and more. 

According to the University of Chicago, unclaimed property is defined as "tangible or intangible money or assets held by an organization that has not had contact with the rightful owner for a specified period of time."

After a certain amount of time has passed and the property has not been claimed by its owner, the organization holding it may undertake to offload the property by remitting it to the state where the rightful owner was last known to have lived.  

Though the upcoming auction is mainly for tangible items, unclaimed property is often recognized in the law as being more along the lines of intangible financial interests and assets. These are statutorily defined in Illinois and include: 

• bank credit balances 
• virtual currency 
• interest  
• dividend 
• check 
• draft 
• deposit 
• payroll card 
• customer's overpayment 
• stored-value card 
• security deposit 
• refund 
• credit memorandum 
• unpaid wage 
• unused ticket for which the issuer has an obligation to provide a refund 
• mineral proceeds 
• unidentified remittance 
• a security 
• a bond, debenture, note, or other evidence of indebtedness 
• money deposited to redeem a security, make a distribution, or pay a dividend 
• an amount due and payable under an annuity contract or insurance policy 
• an amount distributable from a trust or custodial fund established under a plan to provide health, welfare, pension, vacation, severance, retirement, death, stock purchase, profit-sharing, employee-savings, supplemental-unemployment insurance, or a similar benefit 
• any instrument on which a financial organization or business association is directly liable 

Rules around unclaimed property vary from state to state, but in Illinois, the main governing law is the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. The Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act defines "property" as "tangible property described in Section 15-201 or a fixed and certain interest in intangible property held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality."  

Section 15-201, as mentioned in the definition of property above, explains that "property is presumed abandoned if it is unclaimed by the apparent owner during the period specified below: 

• a traveler's check, 15 years after issuance;  
• a money order, 5 years after issuance; 
• a money order, 5 years after issuance; 
• any type of financial instrument on which a financial organization or business association is directly liable, other than a money order, 3 years after issuance 
• a state or municipal bond, bearer bond, or original-issue-discount bond, 3 years after the earliest of the date the bond matures or is called, or the obligation to pay the principal of the bond arises; 
• a debt of a business association, 3 years after the obligation to pay arises; 
• financial organization deposits as follows: 
• a demand deposit, 3 years after the date of the last indication of interest in the property by the apparent owner; 
• a savings deposit, 3 years after the date of the last indication of interest in the property by the apparent owner; 
• a time deposit for which the owner has not consented to automatic renewal of the time deposit, 3 years after the later of maturity or the date of the last indication of interest in the property by the apparent owner; 
• an automatically renewable time deposit for which the owner consented to the automatic renewal in a record on file with the holder, 3 years after the date of last indication of interest in the property by the apparent owner, following the completion of the initial term of the time deposit and one automatic renewal term of the time deposit; 
• virtual currency, 5 years after the last indication of interest in the property; 
• money or credit owed to a customer as a result of a retail business transaction, other than in-store credit for returned merchandise, 3 years after the obligation arose 
• property held by a court, including property received as proceeds of a class action, 3 years after the property becomes distributable; 
• property held by a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, including municipal bond interest and unredeemed principal under the administration of a paying agent or indenture trustee, 3 years after the property becomes distributable; 
• wages, commissions, bonuses, or reimbursements to which an employee is entitled, or other compensation for personal services, including amounts held on a payroll card, one year after the amount becomes payable; 
• a deposit or refund owed to a subscriber by a utility one year after the deposit or refund becomes payable, except for a certain set of circumstances related to electric utilities, which the statute outlines in depth  

The intangible assets listed above are not even an exhaustive list of all the ones that the statute contemplates. It also defines what is not considered intangible property, such as: 

• game-related digital content 
• a loyalty card 
• a gift card 

Something of note is that "virtual currency" is defined by the statute as "any type of digital unit, including cryptocurrency, used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or a form of digitally stored value, which does not have legal tender status recognized by the United States." According to the statute, "virtual currency" does not include: 

• the software or protocols governing the transfer of the digital representation of value 
• game-related digital content 
• a loyalty card or gift card 

The University of Chicago is one such organization that holds the funds or valuables that belong to someone else, pending their being claimed by their rightful owner. For example, the University of Chicago currently holds the following types of items: 

• Payroll Checks 
• Tuition Refund Checks 
• Student Stipend Checks 
• Vendor Payments 
• Rent Deposits or Overpayments 
• University of Chicago Physician's Group Patient Credit Balances 
• Royalty Payments 
• Student Account Credit Balances 

According to their website, "the University is required by law to report and remit any property that is considered abandoned pursuant to the unclaimed property laws and regulations of the state of the owner's last known address through a process known as escheat." "Escheat" means "the reversion of property to the state," according to the Oxford Dictionary.  

The unclaimed property being auctioned by the State Treasurer may have many different origins, but each item was required by law to be turned over to the state. In this case, the State Treasurer's Office represents the state, and so this is where those items landed.  

There are various ways to find out if you have unclaimed property. You can search via the State Treasurer's website and initiate a claim. The treasurer is currently holding 2.5 billion dollars worth of unclaimed property for Illinois residents, so it's worth a shot to check if some of that may be yours.

It can be returned to you at no cost as long as you provide the necessary identification. And if that doesn't work out, check out the auction and see what you can find!