Unclaimed property team goes beyond state requirements to serve Thrivent clients.
With just hours before Thrivent would need to turn more than $187,000 of client money over to the state of Oklahoma, I made one more attempt to connect with Sara.*
After her husband died, Sara set up a flexible payout deposit agreement with the death proceeds from her husband’s life insurance contract. Sara had last connected with us in November 2015. By mid-2020, the deadline was nearing to turn the more than $187,000 over to the state.
Under state laws, if the proceeds of life insurance or annuity contracts aren’t claimed within a certain time period, the assets can be declared dormant and must be handed over to the state as unclaimed property. The amount of time varies by state but is generally three to five years.
I was disappointed when my call went to voice mail, again.
Then, Sara picked up. After months of sending letters and unanswered calls, we had finally reached her. Initially, she was cautious. But gratefully, I was able to verify Sara’s identity, and we prevented her assets from being turned over to the state as unclaimed property.
Our clients are at the center of all we do. And it’s why we’ll go the extra mile to make sure the assets we’ve been entrusted with get to the right people.
Sometimes that can be challenging, though. Clients may move and forget to update their addresses. Some forget or don’t even know they have a product with Thrivent. And some are beneficiaries who don’t want or know how to claim their benefits.
Once the assets are in state control, clients and/or beneficiaries can reclaim them, but the process is often burdensome. To try to prevent this, Thrivent’s Unclaimed Property team goes above and beyond to contact these clients. This means doing due diligence to track down current phone numbers and addresses using a variety of online resources.
And the effort is worth it when we finally connect with clients. Unclaimed property is another opportunity for us at Thrivent to be a trusted partner for our clients and help preserve their assets or death benefits.
Daniel Mead is manager of the Unclaimed Property Program at Thrivent.
*Name has been changed.
