Sold shares
Buried in most heir claims with a brokerage account is a hard rule: states sell escheated securities, and the claimant receives the proceeds as of the sale — the appreciation after that date is gone, however large. This guide states the rule, the case that tested it to the Supreme Court's door, and the timing habit it teaches.
When stock, mutual funds, or other securities sit unclaimed past their dormancy period, the holder transfers them to the state — and the state, in most cases, sells them. Your claim is then for the cash proceeds of that sale. If the shares tripled after the sale date, the growth is not yours; if they fell, the sale value is what you get. The claim pays the liquidation value, full stop.
In Peters v. Cohen, the claimant's Amazon shares — escheated and sold by the state — had appreciated roughly $2.6 million between the sale and the claim. The claimant sued for the shares' later value; the courts held for the sale-proceeds rule, and the Supreme Court declined to take the case (October 2025). The lesson isn't that the rule is fair. It's that the rule is settled — and that the only defense is timing: claim securities property as early as you can, because every month of delay is a month where the sale may already have happened at a price you can't revisit.
Run your own claim. The free checker takes your state, your relationship, and your amount — and returns the probate-skip verdict, your document chain in order, the signatures you'll need, and the finder fee you'd avoid. Run the checker →
The pages above are the map. The kit is the paperwork: the per-state checklists, the Table of Heirs worksheet, the letters that line up every heir's signature, and the chapter for the state's reply.
One payment, yours to keep. We never file for you and never touch your money — you file everything yourself, with the state. See everything inside the kit →