Peter Mastroianni, Partner and Chief Innovation Officer at Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg, LLP, was our guest at the September 13th UMCRM Community Conversation. Peter shared with us about escheatment and how to retrieve unclaimed assets that are owed to you, your family, your donors, and your camp ministry.
What is Escheatment?
"When certain assets are left unclaimed, those assets are transferred to states and other governmental entities in a process known as escheatment. The assets are then custodially held until the rightful owner can reclaim them. Currently, more than $50 billion dollars of custodial escheatment is in governmental possession."
- Peter Mastroianni
Benefits of escheatment
Am I or my organization owed funds currently held in escheatment?
Find out if you have assets in escheatment
Find out if your camp is owed money through escheatment
This site enables you to search by state to see if you & your family members, your camp/retreat center, or UM churches in your region have unclaimed assets. It is a free resource, so any individual or business can use it.
Tips for searching:
- Click on your state at escheatment.com
- Search your name, your organization's name
- Try alternative spellings to your name
- Try just part of your or your camp's name
- Search for family, churches, etc.
How can we create a “Reverse Fundraiser?”
A "Reverse Fundraiser" is a way to build relationships with your supporters and give back to those who have been generous to your ministry in the past. In most situations, people and organizations do not know that they are owed funds or assets through escheatment. This is an opportunity for your supporters (people, churches, Conference, etc) to make a donation to your ministry with these extra funds that they didn't realize they had in the first place. It will not impact their planned budget.
Create an event or campaign that teaches donors and supporters about escheatment. Then invite them to give a portion of their claimed assets to your ministry. Here's an example of a "Reverse Fundraiser"
Another option is to create a video describing escheatment and inviting people to give a portion of their unclaimed funds to your camp. Post the video and the escheatment.com website on your ministry's giving page.
We'd like to invite anyone who finds money to give back to UM Camp & Retreat Ministries. Anyone who doesn’t have one favorite camp is welcome to donate back a portion of "found" assets to support our national Association:
https://umcrm.wildapricot.org/Donate
Please contact Jessica if you have any questions. Peter Mastroianni is also more than willing to help -- just click the Contact Us button on Escheatment.com.
