Editing Escheat (section)

==Current operation==
[[File:Jury finding Kentucky County Virginia John Connolly Daniel Boone 1780.jpg|thumb|Jury finding from [[Kentucky County, Virginia]] County Court from an inquest of escheat. A twelve-man panel adjudged John Connolly and Alexander McKee to be [[British citizen]]s within the meaning of the Virginia Assembly Act of 1779 concerning British subjects and their rights under Virginia law. (The Assembly had seized Connolly's claims prior to the inquest.) The jury found that the lands of Connolly and McKee were [[Forfeiture (law)|forfeited]] as they were British (and not American) citizens. [[Daniel Boone]] was listed as member of jury. (July 1780)]]

Most common-law jurisdictions have abolished the concept of [[feudal land tenure]] of property, and so the concept of escheat has lost something of its meaning. In [[England and Wales]], the possibility of escheat of a deceased person's property to the feudal overlord was abolished by the [[Administration of Estates Act 1925]]; however, the concept of [[Unowned property|''bona vacantia'']] means that the Crown (or [[Duchy of Cornwall]] or [[Duchy of Lancaster]]) can still receive such property if no-one else can be found who is eligible to inherit it.

The term is often now applied to the transfer of the title to a person's property to the state when the person dies [[intestate]] without any other person capable of taking the property as [[heir]]. For example, a common-law jurisdiction's intestacy statute might provide that when someone dies without a [[Will (law)|will]], and is not survived by a spouse, descendants, parents, grandparents, descendants of parents, children or grandchildren of grandparents, or great-grandchildren of grandparents, then the person's estate will escheat to the state.

Similarly, under [[Napoleonic law]], if someone dies intestate without natural heirs then, after all creditors are paid, any remaining real and personal goods are inherited by the State.

In some jurisdictions, escheat can also occur when an entity, typically a bank, credit union or other financial institution, holds money or property which appears to be  unclaimed, for instance due to a lack of activity on the account by way of deposits, withdrawals or any other transactions for a lengthy time in a cash account.  In many jurisdictions, if the owner cannot be located, such property can be revocably escheated to the state.

In commerce, it is the process of reassigning legal title in unclaimed or abandoned payroll checks, insurance payouts, or stocks and shares whose owners cannot be traced, to a state authority (in the United States). A company is required to file unclaimed property reports with its state annually and, in some jurisdictions, to make a good-faith effort to find the owners of their dormant accounts.  The escheating criteria are set by individual state regulations.

===England and Wales===

====Bankruptcies and liquidations====
Escheat can still occur in [[England and Wales]], if a person is made [[bankrupt]] or a [[corporation]] is [[liquidation|liquidated]]. Usually this means that all the property held by that person is 'vested in' (transferred to) the [[Official Receiver]] or [[Trustee in Bankruptcy]]. However, it is open to the Receiver or Trustee to refuse to accept that property by [[disclaimer|disclaiming]] it. It is relatively common for a trustee in bankruptcy to disclaim freehold property which may give rise to a liability, for example the common parts of a block of [[Apartment|flats]] owned by the bankrupt would ordinarily pass to the trustee to be realised in order to pay his debts, but the property may give the landlord an obligation to spend money for the benefit of lessees of the flats. The bankruptcy of the original owner means that the freehold is no longer the bankrupt's legal property, and the disclaimer destroys the freehold [[Estate (law)|estate]], so that the land ceases to be owned by anyone and effectively escheats to become land held by the Crown in [[demesne]].  This situation affects a few hundred properties each year.

Although such escheated property is owned by the Crown, it is not part of the [[Crown Estate]], unless the Crown (through the [[Crown Estate Commissioners]]) 'completes' the escheat, by taking steps to exert rights as owner. However, usually, in the example given above, the tenants of the flats, or their [[mortgage law|mortgagees]] would exercise their rights given by the [[Insolvency Act 1986]] to have the freehold property transferred to them. This is the main difference between escheat and ''bona vacantia'', as in the latter, a grant takes place automatically, with no need to 'complete' the transaction.

====Registration of Crown land====

One consequence of the [[Land Registration Act 1925]] was that only [[Estate in land|estates in land]] (freehold or leasehold) could be registered. [[Crown land]], i.e., land held directly by the Crown – also known as property in the ''royal [[demesne]]'' – is not held under any residual feudal tenure (the Crown has no historical overlord other than, for brief periods, the [[Pope|papacy]]), and there is therefore no estate to register. This had the consequence that freeholds which escheated to the Crown ceased to be registrable. This created a slow drain of property out of registration, amounting to some hundreds of freehold titles in each year.

The problem was noted by the [[Law Commission]] in their report "Land Registration for the Twenty-First Century". The [[Land Registration Act 2002]] was passed in response to that report. It provides that land held in demesne by the Crown may be registered.

=== United States ===

==== Transfer agents and escheatment ====
Escheatment is the process of returning lost or unclaimed property to the government of a state, for safekeeping until the owner is identified. Geographic jurisdiction of the state is determined by the last known address of the original owner. Each [[U.S. state|state]] has laws regulating escheatment, with holding periods typically ranging around five years. The legal principle behind escheatment is that all property has a legally recognized owner. Therefore, if the original owner cannot be found within a specified time, the government is presumed to be the owner.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/escheat.asp|title=Escheat|author=Investopedia Staff|date=2003-11-18|work=Investopedia|access-date=2018-01-26|language=en-US}}</ref>

Escheats are performed on a revocable basis. Thus, if property has escheated to a state but the original owner subsequently is found, escheatment is revoked and ownership of the property reverts to that original owner.

==== Lost shareholders ====
According to SEC Rule 17 CFR 240.17f-1: Transfer agents are obligated by the SEC to report to the commission (specifically to its designee; the SEC's Securities Information System) anytime a certificate is known to be lost or missing for at least two days.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/240.17f-1|title=17 CFR 240.17f-1 - Requirements for reporting and inquiry with respect to missing, lost, counterfeit or stolen securities.|website=LII / Legal Information Institute|language=en|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> Transfer Agents must search for the holder's SSN or EIN utilizing an information database system, or if not available, exercise their best effort to match the holder's name and address through these systems. All transfer agents must report all lost or missing certificates/shareholders on their own annual filings.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://westcoaststocktransfer.com/escheatment |title= Escheatment |language=en |access-date= 2018-01-26}}</ref>