The Nation's Premier Unclaimed Asset Location & Recovery Specialists

Did you receive a call or letter from us?

Frequently Asked Questions: Individuals & Estate Heirs

This section contains the questions we most often hear from individuals and estate heirs that we have located. We encourage you to contact us for further explanations or if you have additional questions not covered here.

How long has Global Discoveries been in business?
How do I know you’re legitimate?
Are you a collections agency?
What does "unclaimed or lost asset" mean?
How did you find me?
How did my assets get lost?
Who has my unclaimed or lost assets?
How do I get started?
How long does the process take?
Is there a time limit to claim any lost or unclaimed funds?
Can I claim these assets on my own?
How much is this going to cost me?

How long has Global Discoveries been in business?

Global Discoveries was formed in 2000 and is currently registered in good standing with the Nevada and California Secretary of State Offices. The company originally started doing business in 1999 under the name California Asset Recovery, which was a division of a company formed in 1995 known as California Equity Management Group Inc, both wholly owned and operated by Global Discoveries CEO Andrew B. Katakis. Unfortunately, many clients contacted by California Asset Recovery believed it was a collection agency due to the ambiguous name. So, after enjoying many years of success, Mr. Katakis and his new partner transferred both the business model and assets of California Asset Recovery into what is now known as Global Discoveries. Mr. Katakis believed that it was best to create a new identity that better represented the company business profile, which focused exclusively on locating and recovering unclaimed or lost assets. The new name improved the company’s presence and eliminated the confusion associated with the previous name.

Since our inception in 2000, we have been a member in good standing of the Better Business Bureau. We are a BBB Accredited Business and have received the BBB Award of Excellence acknowledging our high quality of service year after year.

Most importantly, we have helped thousands of clients recover more than $25 million. We routinely work with some of the largest financial organizations in the country, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Washington Mutual and Chicago Title.

For additional information, please see:
Licenses, Affiliations & Certifications
Who We Serve
Testimonials Back to top Are you a collections agency?

No. We are not a collections agency. In fact, you could say we are the opposite of a collections 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. Global Discoveries specializes in locating unclaimed and lost assets, contacting the individuals and businesses with the right to claims those assets, and assisting them in completing the claims process. A call or letter from us is either good news or 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 Global Discoveries 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 sophisticated software developed 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. In one case, we posted a billboard to locate an individual entitled to $2 million.

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

Assets may be the result of inheritance, lost payments or returns on property, businesses or insurance policies, 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. Also, due to laws that 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. Global Discoveries usually locates lost or unclaimed assets being held by entities other a state abandoned property offices, so they cannot be located through an Internet search. Once you return the completed paperwork, a claims professional will be able to provide more specific information.

If we have already contacted you, the first step is to complete and return the service agreement. The agreement spells out the terms and conditions in easy-to-understand terms and provides Global Discoveries 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 body holding the assets. For most of our clients, the claims process takes between six months and a year 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 receive no payment until your assets are returned, so it is in our best interests to move as quickly as possible.

There is no easy answer to that question. Every claim is unique, and asset holders are regulated by a variety of different laws. Assets held by the State Abandoned Property Offices usually have either lengthy or no time limits, but those are not the assets we normally locate and recover. Many assets we locate have fairly narrow time windows in which you can file a claim, and some asset holders are allowed to absorb the unclaimed asset after that time expires. When we locate assets and contact potential claimants, we inform them of any relevant claims deadlines. Whether there is a deadline or not, the claims process can be lengthy, so we advise that you return all your paperwork as promptly as possible. The sooner we are able to recover your assets, the sooner you will be able to put them to work for you.

If Global Discoveries notified you of lost or unclaimed assets it may be possible to claim them on your own. However, if locating lost assets and filing and following claims were easy, we would not be in business. The process of locating and claiming assets is challenging and time consuming and has taken years for us to perfect. We’ve found that even people who have located assets on their own give up in frustration because the claims process is often convoluted and confusing. Because we know the process and have developed solid relationships with asset holders, we can expedite your claim and help you recover assets faster, while avoiding unnecessary expenses and possible mistakes.

We work on a contingency-fee basis on all claims, with terms spelled out in a written contract signed by Global Discoveries and you. We cover 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.

Frequently Asked Questions: Individuals & Estate Heirs