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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The California State Controller’s Office said it waived more than $57 million in interest on June 14, 2024, while clearing a backlog of old unclaimed-property cases. The office said the cases averaged 15 years old, the deadline to sue holders for collection had passed, and litigation would cost the state time and money without changing the outcome. That explains the office’s stated rationale; it does not settle whether an expired collection deadline, by itself, is a legally authorized reason to waive interest.
What California waived—and what it did not
On June 14, 2024, the California State Controller’s Office approved waivers covering more than $57 million in interest across more than 4,200 separate payments, according to The Sacramento Bee’s investigation, republished by ArcaMax. The amounts were owed by companies, insurers and other holders that had not properly reported or delivered unclaimed property to the state. Some individual waivers exceeded $1 million.
The waived amount was interest owed to the state, not the underlying property owed to Californians or their heirs. California’s unclaimed-property program covers assets such as dormant accounts, securities, uncashed checks, insurance proceeds, estate funds and utility deposits. Holders report and deliver covered property to the state, which holds it for owners to claim. The Controller’s Office says property is generally considered unclaimed after the period set by law, usually three years. See the office’s About Unclaimed Property page.
Why the Controller’s Office said it waived the interest
The cases were unusually old
The office said the waived accounts averaged 15 years old. That was substantially older than the accounts associated with waivers in the comparison years: the investigation reported average ages of three to five years for waivers in 2023 and 2025.
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The office said court collection was no longer practical
The office’s spokesperson said the three-year period to sue for collection had passed in these cases. The office also said preparing litigation would have consumed time and money without changing the outcome. The investigation described the batch as part of a broader cleanup of cases carried over from earlier administrations.
A backlog contributed to the one-day batch
The office attributed the unusually large total to staffing limitations and accumulated work. The investigation reported that the unclaimed-property division had four staff members in 2019 and the same number in 2024; the Controller’s Office said it had one additional support staff member in 2024 compared with five years earlier.
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For context, the investigation reported just under $3.9 million in waivers for all of 2023 and $2.9 million for all of 2025, compared with more than $57 million in the June 2024 batch. These figures and the account-age comparisons are reported from records reviewed by The Sacramento Bee; they are not a separate official dataset published with the investigation.
What California law says about interest and waivers
California Code of Civil Procedure section 1577 generally requires holders that fail to report, pay or deliver unclaimed property on time to pay interest to the Controller at 12% per year, unless the failure was due to reasonable cause. The State Controller’s Office explains that reasonable cause can include circumstances beyond a holder’s control or erroneous information supplied by an office employee; the holder bears the burden of establishing it. These rules appear in the Controller’s Unclaimed Property Law and Regulations guide, dated February 2026.
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The law and regulations provide for relief in specified circumstances, including reasonable cause for certain reporting failures. The office also says eligible holders who complete the requirements of its Voluntary Compliance Program can qualify for waived interest on past-due property reported through the program. The sources available about the 2024 batch do not establish that it was processed under the VCP.
The legal question is narrower than whether the office considered litigation impractical: the investigation reported that the interest law does not expressly list an expired statute of limitations as a ground for waiver. The Controller’s Office cited the passed deadline as part of its explanation, but the material available does not establish that a court ruled on the 2024 waivers or resolve whether that rationale, standing alone, fits the law’s waiver provisions. The office’s explanation should therefore not be treated as a settled interpretation of section 1577.
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What is known about the individual waivers
The investigation identified a $1,918,901 waiver for Merrill Lynch and a $1,678,834 waiver for National Financial Services. It reported that letters to the two companies were nearly identical and used a general conclusion that the circumstances satisfied or arguably met the legislature’s waiver standard, without giving specific facts explaining the decision for each company.
The investigation also reported concern from former State Controller Betty Yee about the number of waivers approved on one day and her surprise that some interest had reportedly been forgiven without holders requesting relief. She acknowledged workload pressures while saying that a request should still be made. That is her attributed assessment, not a statement of statutory requirements.
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The available reporting does not establish the complete individualized rationale for every waiver, identify every recipient, or show whether each holder requested relief. Those gaps matter: the office’s broad explanation does not reveal whether the same facts or legal basis applied to every account.
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