The Company receives many emails from the public through our websites, including employment inquiries, approved notary requests, complaints, fee quotes, etc. Recently we received a unique email. This was not a complaint; but simply a message from a Good Samaritan.

"Hello. Ok so this may sound a little convoluted but hear me out, I was reading CBS 13 Sacramento's website for news today. They did a story on unclaimed funds and I checked it for my name but it was not on there. I started to look at some of the 15,000 accounts the City of Sacramento owes money to out of their unclaimed funds account. I saw that they owed money to Fidelity National Title. Not just one amount but many, many amounts have been escheated to the state in this Company's name. After a Google™ search it seems like you might be associated with this Company and since the City does not have the resources to track all the people down they owe money to, I thought I would give you a heads up and maybe the money can get back to you if it is your money. Hopefully that makes some kind of sense to you and if it is your money you can collect it. Good Luck! John."

How very thoughtful of this gentleman to take his time to send this note. He is right. There are thousands and thousands of dollars escheated in our various Companies' names. This is true for many states, but why?

The various Companies that make up the Fidelity Family frequently have funds escheated in their name by payees out of the trust accounts. The escheated funds are the result of bills (tax bills, utility bills, credit card bills, etc.) being paid through escrow in excess of the amount due or sometimes the checks do not contain enough information for the payee to apply the payment to any account.

The refund checks are returned to the issuing office and often either lost in the mail or stuck in the file, and never deposited. The taxing authority or vendor has no choice but to escheat the money in the name of the Company because they cannot get the branch to negotiate the check.

Why are these funds not claimed by the Company? In most cases it is hard to determine whose funds they really are. If the funds came from a trust account, the funds do not really belong to the Company. They belong to someone else.

If the Company claimed the funds, we would have to start all over in trying to determine who they actually belong to and then locate the owner in order to deliver the funds to them.

In some cases there are legitimate refunds due to the Company for our own corporate expenses or other vendor's contracts. There are also payments for reconveyance fees, notice of default fees and payment of outstanding title invoices remitted to the Company by other title companies that were never cashed.

The limited information provided on the various states' unclaimed property websites does not provide enough detail, however, for corporate to tie a refund to a particular operation of the Company.

If you become aware of unclaimed funds in your state, do not claim them. Just because the funds are listed in the Company's name does not mean the funds belong to the Company. Once claimed, the Company must ensure the funds are credited to the proper account.

The Company does have a department devoted to the escheatment of funds. It is the Unclaimed Property Group. They manage the escheatment process for unclaimed funds which appear on trial balances. They also research funds escheated in the Company's names and claim these funds if they are able to determine whose funds they are and where they should be applied.