Maximum unclaimed-property finder fee by state — quick reference

A finder fee is the percentage a private firm charges to file an unclaimed-property claim on your behalf. The firm searches the public state database under your name, identifies a property listing, mails or texts you a contract, and offers to handle the paperwork in exchange for a cut of the recovered amount. The work is administrative: a notarized claim form, supporting identity documents, and 30 to 90 days of waiting for the state to process. The state would have processed the same claim for free if you'd filed directly. The finder's value proposition is that they identified the property for you, which presumes you wouldn't have searched otherwise. State outreach (free letters from the state's unclaimed-property division) and consumer-facing search tools like our multi-state search make that presumption increasingly weak. Where the cap matters: even when you decide a finder is worth it (rare scenarios involving complex multi-state heir claims or specialty asset types like mineral rights), state caps put a ceiling on what you'll pay. A finder asking for more than the cap is operating in violation of state law, and the contract is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds the cap.

Caps verified to state statute where citation is shown; otherwise drawn from current state treasurer guidance as of early 2026. - **Alabama:** 10% (Ala. Code §35-12-90). - **Alaska:** 10% (general guidance). - **Arizona:** 30% (highest in the U.S.). - **Arkansas:** 10%. - **California:** Heavily regulated; 10% on most property, 0% within 24 months of escheatment, additional restrictions on dormancy-related fees (Cal. Civ. Proc. Code §1582). - **Colorado:** 10%. - **Connecticut:** 10% (C.G.S. §3-65b). - **Delaware:** 10% with state registration. - **District of Columbia:** 10%. - **Florida:** 20% effective 2024 (Fla. Stat. §717.135). - **Georgia:** 10% (O.C.G.A. §44-12-220). - **Hawaii:** 10% with 24-month rule (Haw. Rev. Stat. §523A-21). - **Idaho:** 15%. - **Illinois:** 10% (765 ILCS 1026/15-1304). - **Indiana:** 10%. - **Iowa:** 15%. - **Kansas:** 15%. - **Kentucky:** 10%. - **Louisiana:** 10%. - **Maine:** 10%. - **Maryland:** 10%. - **Massachusetts:** 10%. - **Michigan:** 10%. - **Minnesota:** 10%. - **Mississippi:** 25%. - **Missouri:** 15%. - **Montana:** 15%. - **Nebraska:** 10% (Neb. Rev. Stat. §69-1318).

- **Nevada:** 10% (Nev. Rev. Stat. §120A.620). - **New Hampshire:** 10%. - **New Jersey:** 20%. - **New Mexico:** 15%. - **New York:** 15% (N.Y. Aband. Prop. Law §1416). - **North Carolina:** 20%. - **North Dakota:** 10%. - **Ohio:** 10%. - **Oklahoma:** 10%. - **Oregon:** 15%. - **Pennsylvania:** 15%; finders must be state-registered (72 P.S. §1301.27). - **Rhode Island:** 10%. - **South Carolina:** 15%. - **South Dakota:** 10%. - **Tennessee:** 10%. - **Texas:** 10% (Tex. Prop. Code §74.507). - **Utah:** 10%. - **Vermont:** 10%. - **Virginia:** 10%. - **Washington:** 5% (lowest in the U.S.; Rev. Code Wash. §63.29 et seq. and recent reform). See the Washington state portal for filing. - **West Virginia:** 10%. - **Wisconsin:** 10%. - **Wyoming:** 10%. Many states layer additional rules on top of the cap: the 24-month unenforceability window, registration requirements, mandatory disclosures, and rescission rights. The cap is the ceiling, not the only protection. Even a 10% fee for filing a one-page form remains an extraordinary rate of pay for the work involved.

Washington's 5% cap reflects a 2020-era reform pushed by the state treasurer's office that aimed to discourage finder activity altogether. The state's view was that finder firms add little value over direct state outreach, and a 5% cap makes the business essentially unviable for routine claims while preserving access for unusual high-value or specialty cases. The reform also tightened the 24-month rule and required clearer disclosures. Arizona's 30% cap is the loosest in the country. The state hasn't reformed its finder statute since the 1990s, and the 30% figure reflects an older view that finders provided meaningful service in an era before public search tools made claims trivially DIY. There's been periodic legislative interest in reform, but no enacted change as of early 2026. The practical takeaway: Washington consumers can usually ignore finder pitches outright (the 5% cap leaves little room for a firm to operate profitably on small claims). Arizona consumers should be especially aggressive about searching directly through the state — a 30% fee on a $1,000 claim is $300, an absurd rate for paperwork the state would process for free. See the Washington state portal and the broader state portal index for direct-claim filing.

Two scenarios. In states with strict statutory caps (Texas, Illinois, California, New York, Pennsylvania), exceeding the cap typically voids the entire contract. The consumer can recover the full property and the finder gets nothing. Several states (California Code of Civil Procedure §1582, Pennsylvania 72 P.S. §1301.27) include statutory damages and attorneys' fees for consumers who sue to enforce. In states with softer enforcement, exceeding the cap reduces the fee to the cap by operation of law — the finder gets the capped percentage instead of what the contract said, and the consumer gets the rest. The contract is enforceable as modified. Either way, the consumer's first step is the same: send a written rescission or cap-enforcement letter via certified mail, citing the relevant statute and demanding the property be redirected. See the rescission guide for the procedure and the template letter. If the firm refuses to comply, file a complaint with the state attorney general and (where applicable) the state treasurer's office, which often has authority to revoke a registered finder's license.

No. Federal unclaimed property — IRS refunds, savings bonds, HUD/FHA refunds, PBGC pension benefits, FDIC failed-bank deposits — isn't subject to state finder-fee caps because the underlying property isn't held by a state. Federal recovery channels are mostly free direct-to-agency processes (Form 3911 for IRS, FS Form 1048 for savings bonds, the HUD database for FHA refunds) and finder firms in this category often charge percentages that exceed any state cap simply because no state cap applies. Federal Trade Commission and state consumer-protection statutes can still reach abusive federal-property finder practices — including misleading solicitations, percentage fees on free government services, and disclosure violations — but the percentage caps don't translate. Treat federal-recovery finder pitches with extra skepticism for this reason. The recovery is almost always free if you file directly. See the uncashed IRS refund guide for the form-by-form procedure. For mixed claims that include both state and federal property, the state portion is subject to the cap and the federal portion isn't — but the underlying advice is the same: file directly, pay nothing, and treat any percentage-based recovery firm as a sales pitch rather than a service.

Strictly speaking, zero. The state pays directly, the search is free, the form takes 20 minutes, the documentation is the same set you'd assemble anyway. There is no scenario in which a finder fee for a routine claim is 'reasonable' from a consumer welfare standpoint — every dollar goes to a firm doing work you'd have done in an afternoon. Three narrow scenarios where 5%–10% can be defensible: - **Multi-state heir claims** with disputes among siblings, where coordinating documentation and disclaimers across multiple state divisions takes substantive professional effort. - **High-value mineral, oil, or gas royalties** with multi-generational chains of title that require historical research the firm has subscriptions for. - **Securities claims with complex corporate-action history** — mergers, spin-offs, splits, name changes stacked on top of each other across decades. Even in these scenarios, you're often better off paying a probate attorney or estate specialist on a flat hourly fee rather than a finder on a percentage. Hourly work for these scenarios typically resolves at $1,500 to $5,000 depending on complexity — flat dollars rather than percentage of asset value, which keeps the math sane regardless of how large the claim turns out to be.

Find your state in the table above. If a finder is asking for more than the cap, the contract is unenforceable to that extent — see the rescission guide for how to invoke the cap or void the contract entirely. If a finder is asking for the cap or less, the math still rarely works for routine claims; file directly through the state portal free. Related reading: how to spot an unclaimed-money letter scam, the in-depth state-by-state finder-fee analysis, and the Washington state portal (lowest cap, simplest direct-file path). The cap is the ceiling. Direct-filing is the floor — and almost always the right choice.