Escheatment Question

The instructions for escheatment checks state:

"Note: Church headquarters will now escheat checks that have been outstanding for more than 180 days. Those checks cannot be voided and should not be reissued. If a check was escheated, the payee must contact Church headquarters to get the funds."

Can anyone give me a more specific department/phone number to give to a member of my ward?

The Help Center article indicates that the church will provide the payee additional instructions by letter. I presume that would include contact information. If they haven't received a letter then I'd suggest calling Local Unit Support and asking them.

However, in most (if not all) states the payee will actually have to contact the appropriate state government department to get their funds. The church turns escheated funds over to the state government who then manages the process from there. So probably the church will simply direct the payee to the correct state department.

You can help avoid this by watching the non-cashed checks on your monthly finance statement. I contact each member who has not cashed their reimbursement check within 30 days and remind them that it needs to be cashed promptly. Of course that is more difficult for payments to businesses (like welfare funds) but we normally don't see a problem with that.

I just received a notice in MLS from Church HQ on an escheated check that stated "If the check was lost, please void the check. Then, if funds are still needed, please reissue the check."

So that's what I did.

chad.stewart wrote:I just received a notice in MLS from Church HQ on an escheated check that stated "If the check was lost, please void the check. Then, if funds are still needed, please reissue the check."

So that's what I did.

That must have been for a check that was going to be escheated soon but where it hadn't happened yet. Once a check has been escheated it's not possible to void the check. At that point the church has turned the funds over to the state so the check shouldn't be reissued.

I show escheated checks, one for [redacted] and one for [redacted]. How can they claim those funds? All I can see is to contact local support, but there is no contact information (unit 172219)

richardharshberger wrote:I show escheated checks, one for [redacted] and one for [redacted]. How can they claim those funds? All I can see is to contact local support, but there is no contact information (unit 172219)

Contact the Global Service Center.

We had a check that I found had been escheated before I was called as Finance Clerk (the member had lost the check for almost a year and fortunately brought it to me when they found it before cashing it). CHQ handles these individually on a case-by-case basis. In my case, they reissued the check from SLC directly to the member after I followed their instructions. Given the situation, it went very smoothly and they know what to do to get everything fixed up.