Video · 6 minutes · captions on
Texas is holding $9 billion+ in unclaimed money. Some is oil royalties
Transcript
Intro
The State of Texas is holding more than nine billion dollars that belongs to somebody else. Old bank accounts. Uncashed paychecks. Forgotten deposits. And mixed in with all of it are oil and gas royalties that never reached the families they belong to. Searching is free. It takes a few minutes. And there's no deadline. Here's how royalty money ends up there, how to find it, and how to claim it without paying anyone a cut. General information, not legal advice. Let's go.
How royalties go missing
Royalty money takes a trip before it lands in the state's vault. Five stops. Stop one. The oil or gas is sold, and the operator owes each owner their share. Stop two. The check goes out to the address on file, and comes back. Or it never gets cashed. Stop three. The company holds the money. Under Texas law, royalties unclaimed for more than three years after they became payable are presumed abandoned. Stop four. If the amount is over two hundred fifty dollars, the company has to send the owner a notice first, if it has an address. Stop five. By July first, the company delivers the money to the Texas Comptroller, who holds it for the owner.
Who this happens to
So who does this happen to? Mostly, normal families. Someone moves, and forgets to send the oil company a new address. An owner dies, and the heirs never tell the company. The checks keep going to an empty mailbox. A name changes after a marriage or a divorce, and the paperwork never catches up. Or the checks are tiny. A few dollars a month. So they sit in a drawer, uncashed, for years. And here's the part that stings. Later royalties from that same interest can follow the first ones to the state, until somebody fixes the address.
How to search
Here's the search, step by step. Go to ClaimItTexas.gov. That's the Comptroller's official site, and it's free. Type the last name, then the first name. If you get too many results, add a city. Now search again. For your parents. Your grandparents. Aunts and uncles who owned land. Maiden names, too. When a listing shows the company that reported the money, write it down. It points to a lease that may still be producing. And if an oil company mailed you an owner notice, it has a property ID printed on it. You can search with that instead.
Search like a detective
Most people search once, find nothing, and give up. Don't. Oil companies type owner names however they were typed decades ago. So search with initials, and with and without middle names. Try common misspellings. A dropped letter, a doubled letter. Try the estate and the trust. Royalties are often reported under names like Mae Hollis Estate, or the Hollis Family Trust. And try old family businesses. The ranch, the partnership, the company grandpa ran in the nineteen seventies. Royalty Clerk's free unclaimed royalties search builds that list of name variations for you, so you can work down it in one sitting. Here's how it plays out for a sample family. Mae owned a small royalty. She died in 2015, and nobody told the oil company, so her checks kept going to an empty house. Three years later, the company sent the money to the state. Years after that, her grandson searched the family names, and found a listing under Hollis Mae Estate. The heirs filed a claim with proof that they inherited. And then, the step most people skip. They wrote to the oil company with the heirs' names and addresses, so future checks come to them, instead of to the state.
How to claim
Found something? Here's how the claim works. Choose claim next to each match that's yours. There's no blank form to download. The site builds your claim form from your search. Every claim needs a signed form and a photo ID. If the owner has died, you'll need proof that you're entitled. A probated will, letters testamentary, or a court order declaring heirship. For a claim under ten thousand dollars where a will was never probated, an affidavit of heirship can be used, when the people in the will are the same people who'd inherit without one. Then you track it with your claim ID. Approved claims are paid by check, in the mail.
The finder trap
Now, a warning. Sometimes a stranger finds you first. Heir finders and asset recovery companies watch these lists, and they'll offer to recover your money for a fee. Texas law caps that fee at ten percent of what's recovered. And for oil and gas money, the fee can't include a share of your minerals, an overriding royalty, or a production payment. The agreement has to be in writing, the finder can't file the claim for you, and heir finders must be licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety. So if a letter asks for a third of the money, or a slice of your minerals, that's your sign to search for free yourself.
Make it stop
Once you've claimed it, make sure it doesn't happen again. Write to the oil company with your current address, and ask what it needs to pay you directly. After a death in the family, send the company the papers that show who owns the interest now. Cash every check, even the small ones. And search again once a year. Companies report to the state every year. One more reason to move fast. Late-payment interest stops once the company hands the money to the state.
Free tools
To see the leases tied to your family's name, the mineral interest finder and the unclaimed royalties search at royaltyclerk.com are free. Send this to one relative who'd want to know. Thanks for watching.
Sample numbers, families and documents are illustrations, not real owners. General information, not legal, tax or investment advice.