No. We are not a collection agency. In fact, you could say we are the opposite of a collection agency. A call from us means that we have found money or other assets that you are entitled to claim. In other words, someone owes you money or assets. Restoring Legacy specializes in locating unclaimed and lost assets, contacting the individuals and businesses with the right to claim those assets, and assisting them in completing the claims process. A call or letter from us is great news!

The phrase refers to anything owed to you or your family that you are unaware exists. There are a number of reasons you or your family could be owed money you don’t know about. The assets could be the result of property, stocks or bonds, insurance policies, royalties, rentals, wages, tax refunds-or a number of other possibilities. By the time we contact you, most assets have been reduced to a monetary figure and are being held by a variety of agencies or parties. Every year Restoring Legacy locates millions of dollars being held in individuals’ names. In most cases the laws regarding these funds don’t require the party holding the assets to make more than a cursory attempt at locating the beneficiary, meaning that without our research that money would go unclaimed.

When we locate unclaimed or lost assets for people, we go to great lengths to make sure they receive them. We have highly talented and skilled researchers for that reason, and subscribe to several national and international databases as well. Our investigators search public records such as voter registrations, telephone directories, driver’s records, birth and death certificates, change of address filings, marriage and divorce filings and military registers as well as genealogical and historical records. 

Restoring Legacy follows a strict Privacy Policy and guarantees we will only use your information for the purposes of resolving your claim.

Assets becomes lost by a number of ways including but not limited to real property that was foreclosed with a surplus and the owner has since passed on or is unaware of the funds, an insurance policy, bank account, stocks, bonds, etc., purchased years ago by a member of your family. Over time, mistakes get made on names and addresses and people move, get married, use nicknames, or change their names for other reasons so that it becomes hard for entities to locate beneficiaries. In some cases laws allow entities to invest the assets and eventually absorb those that remain unclaimed, there is little incentive for the asset holder to make more than a cursory attempt at locating beneficiaries.

Any number of different entities could be holding your assets. but we usually locates lost or unclaimed assets being held by entities other than state abandoned property offices, so they cannot be located through an Internet search. When you speak to one of our recovery professionals we will be able to provide more specific information.

If we have already contacted you, the first step is to complete and return the contingency agreement. This agreement spells out the terms and conditions in easy-to-understand language and provides Restoring Legacy with the authority to act on your behalf while working on the claim. After we receive all the required paperwork, a claims professional will contact you with any further needs and keep you up to date on the status of your claim.

That can vary depending on the type and complexity of your claim or the entity holding the assets. The claims process can take between one months to eighteen months to complete once the claim is filed, but there are cases that take several years to complete. After receiving all the necessary paperwork, your claims professional will be able to provide a more accurate timeline based on your particular claim. We will do everything possible to expedite your claim, but in many cases there are no laws mandating when asset holders must release the assets, so the asset holder dictates the length of your wait. Remember, we operate on a contingency-fee basis and require no payment until your assets are returned, so it is in our best interest to move as quickly as possible.

We work on a contingency-fee basis with all terms spelled out in a written agreement signed by Restoring Legacy and you. We advance all expenses incurred in the claims process, so you pay no upfront costs. Once assets are recovered, we deduct any expenses incurred from the total and you pay us the percentage from the remaining amount, as agreed upon in our written contract. Deducting expenses from the total amount recovered gives you added assurance that we will keep those costs to a minimum. Finally, in the uncommon instance that we are unable to recover your assets, we absorb all expenses and you owe nothing.