EPISODE 72~ FIND YOURS: Have You Appeared on Film, Television, or Radio? You Could Have Unclaimed Money!

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

It is the SAG-AFTRA union’s unclaimed residual database. I actually belong to this union because of my longtime TV career. Residuals are like royalties and are paid to performers or others when a show is syndicated and makes additional money elsewhere. For example, I have been the Dr. Oz Show’s consumer and investigative correspondent for several years now. If stations buy re-runs of Dr. Oz or if foreign countries pay to air the show, I get a residual for any time I appeared. Sometimes it’s 23 cents. Others it more like $230 dollars. Either way, I’ll take it. I’m a geek. I even cash the 23 cent checks.
If you or a loved one has worked in film, TV or radio, you should do a quick search. What I like about the SAG-AFTRA unclaimed residual database is that you can search by first name or last name —which is especially helpful if you’ve gone by more than one name such as a stage name or a married name. You can also search partial first and last names, which is great if there’s a common misspelling of your name.
I found nothing under Leamy, but found a couple dozen Elisabeth’s with an “S” instead of a Z, the way I spell my name. I mention this because it shows how robust the system is. Of course, there were hundreds of Elizabeth’s with a Z.
The SAG-AFTRA website says, quote: “You may be due residuals as a performer, loan out, or as a beneficiary/heir of a performer. If the Union is holding Unclaimed Residuals, it is because we can’t locate you. We may not have current or updated information in our database or we may not know you are the rightful beneficiary/heir.”
If you don’t find something at first but feel there ARE residuals for you and yours out there, search again! The database is updated DAILY! And I will link you to it from EasyMoneyShow.com/72.

LINKS: To search for unclaimed SAG-AFTRA film, television and radio residuals, go here: www.sagaftra.org/unclaimed-residuals

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 71~ FIND YOURS: How to Find Unclaimed Royalties Using a New Tool Called RoyaltyClaim.com

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

RoyaltyClaim.com was founded by music industry professor and consultant Dae Bogan. He says on his website: “I founded RoyaltyClaim, the world’s first search engine of unclaimed music royalties and licenses” to help “DIY musicians and rights-holders identify thousands of unclaimed entitlements. He says that in just a few months, scores of musicians have been able to find their missing money via the site “with one particular music producer uncovering nearly $150,000 in unclaimed royalties due to him.”
Bogan says the problem is that the music system is so complex —and I can attest to that, given that I’ve spent the last several episodes digging up a bunch of different potential sources of unclaimed royalties for musicians.

RoyaltyClaim attempts to bridge the many gaps by offering both free and paid searches of music royalties and also music licenses. One thing I like is that RoyaltyClaim allows musicians to search their name, but also to search other key words, like maybe the title of their most popular song.

I actually tried a free search of the site, looking for unclaimed royalties for my friend Tamara’s late beau, John. John was a prolific performer and producer. So I found 918,708 royalty records under his name just for the month of August 2018. And nearly a million more from September of 2017.

Now, I realize that you may not be a famous musician listening to Easy Money. But maybe you’re a superfan? Why not conduct a quick free search for your favorite artist and then fill them in on anything you find? It’s easy to reach out even to famous people via social media these days. And you’d be sharing good news.

LINK: Use RoyaltyClaim.com to search for unpaid music royalties: www.royaltyclaim.com/#pricing

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 70~ FIND YOURS: Find Lost Royalties Held by SoundExchange

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

SoundExchange —all one word— is the non-profit group congress designated to collect and distribute royalties for digital recordings. The group has paid more than $5 billion dollars to recording artists since its start. But it has also FAILED to pay others, when it was unable to locate them, through no fault of its own, and that’s where the unclaimed money opportunity lies.
When you get to the SoundExchange page for searching for unpaid, unclaimed royalties, you can see that it is very simply laid out. There is an alphabetical, searchable list of bands and individuals who have recorded music that somebody else may have used and paid royalties on.
There are 45,643 accounts listed in all! Some are famous musicians, like I found unclaimed royalties for Pat Monahan, lead singer of the band train. Others are unknowns. Case in point, I also found my old struggling musician boyfriend from when I was 23 years old listed!
And not all are rock or pop or country type bands like you would hear on the radio. In fact, the very first listing in the database is something called the March of Dimes chorus.
Even if you don’t find something now, SoundExchange encourages all performers on sound recordings to register with the group, so that it has your contact information for any future royalties.
The whole thing is impressively straight-forward and user-friendly and, once again, I encourage musicians and family members of musicians to check it out.

LINK: To find unclaimed royalties held by SoundExchange: www.soundexchange.com/artist-copyright-owner/does-soundexchange-have-royalties-for-you/search-for-artist/

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 69~ FIND YOURS: Could You Have Unclaimed Money With Music Royalties From AFM?

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

Today’s resource: the American Federation of Musicians. The AFM is a musician’s union that represents both classical and popular musicians. For reasons I was not able to uncover, the AFM has something called the Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund in cooperation with SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA is the TV and Movie performers union that I myself belong to.
It gets even more confusing but also more juicy: The AFM and SAG AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund doles out royalties to ANYBODY who performed on a commercial recording, even if they were NOT union members.
Fortunately, thats’s where the confusion ends because the group has a really CLEAR, Simple website for searching to see if there are music royalties due to you or your family. You simply go to the page, which I will link you to from EasyMoneySHow.com/69 and search by last name. I took a look and there are thousands of names on the list.
If you find your name, you then fill out a 1-page form that asks for basic things like your name and address, but also information like what instruments you play and artists you have performed with. From looking at the form, it seems like the AFM-SAG-AFTRA Fund will actually conduct a further search FOR you, so my advice to prolific musicians OR their families would be to send in the form even if you did NOT find your name on the website. They just might find something. The website also provides all of the information for heirs and beneficiaries of a musician to claim royalties after their death.

Links:

Search for unclaimed money with music royalties with the American Federation of Musicians:
www.afmsagaftrafund.org/unclaimed-royalties.php

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 68~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Money With Music Royalties From ASCAP

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

According to Wikipedia, “ASCAP is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization that protects its members’ musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly.”
It’s easy to see how ASCAP royalties could go missing since a musician has no way of knowing when somebody might decide to perform his or her work.
I scoured the ASCAP website and even the group’s bylaws to figure out what happens when royalties go unclaimed. Normally ASCAP just sends you a check, but if it can’t find you, what then? Turns out, the group keeps unclaimed royalties in-house for a year, in a special account segregated from its normal operating accounts. During that time, ASCAP members can proactively log into their accounts to see what’s there. I will link you to the page to do that.
After 3 years, ASCAP turns unclaimed royalties over to the state where the musician was last known to live. In fact, I checked MissingMoney.com for ASCAP listings, since MissingMoney has listings for 40 of the 50 states, and I found lots and lots of listings.
SO, if you are a musician or the rightful heir of a musician who published music available to the public, you should do a quick check. First, go to the ASCAP site and log in to check directly. Then, if there’s nothing there, search all of the states where you or your loved one live or lived. You can do that at MissingMoney.com or unclaimed.org. As always, that’s .org. Many more resources for musicians and other performers coming up in the next few podcasts.

Links:
Login in to ASCAP and see if unclaimed money is in a special account for you: www.ascap.com/member-access#login

Search for your unclaimed money: missingmoney.com

Find your unclaimed property: www.unclaimed.org

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 67~ FIND YOURS: How to Find Lost Royalties From Music You Wrote and Others Licensed!

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

I was inspired to look into this after interviewing my friend Tamara on last week’s show about her late beau John who left behind more than $5000 in unclaimed money thanks to his successful music career. So for the next few weeks I’ll cover unclaimed royalties for musicians, actors and other performers.
Let’s start with BMI, which stands for Broadcast Music Inc. It is one of the groups that represent composers and songwriters. Some are famous like Patti Labelle and Michael Jackson. Others are almost unheard of like my old boyfriend the penniless musician. Regardless, if one of those people writes a song and registers it with BMI and then somebody else records it or performs it publicly for money, the performer is supposed to pay the composer a royalty for the use of the music. BMI tracks public performances for more than 13 million works, and collects and distributes licensing revenues for those performances as royalties to more than 800,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers it represents.
In 2017, according to Variety, BMI collected more than $1.13 billion in licensing fees and distributed just $1.023 billion in royalties, so you can see that there’s a big gap there and that gap represents unclaimed money! SO, Are you a composer? Or did somebody in your family write music as far back as the 1930s when BMI was formed?
Fortuately, BMI provides a web page regarding uncashed royalty checks. The group says first it attempts to send its members a letter when a royalty check has sat for a long time uncashed. Then, if that yields nothing, BMI just maintains the money and the records until it hears from the rightful owner or heir.
You can email BMI or write a snail mail letter to inquire about uncashed royalty checks. And I will link you to the contact info you need to do this from EasyMoneyShow.com/67.

LINK:
Find your uncashed BMI royalty checks: www.bmi.com/creators/detail/uncashed_royalty_checks

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 66~ FIND YOURS: When a Loved One Dies There Can Be a Silver Lining: Unclaimed Money That You Can Use to Sort Out Finances.

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

For many months I’d been urging my friend Tamara to do a search. Finally, when she heard me talking about unclaimed money on Easy Money she decided to take my suggestions to heart.   Her long time beau John, was a musician; brilliant, creative and successful— but not so organized with his money.  And there were bills to pay after his untimely death. Today Tamara joins me for our featured “Find Yours” segment to share what she found.  Welcome Tamara and thanks for doing this. 

This is not your typical unclaimed money story. John was a prolific musician.  He produced Grammy award winning records for both famous musicians and emerging artists. He was also nominated for Grammys for his own work as a singer songwriter.  He was a multi instrumentalist who performed with some of the great musicians of our time.  He recorded his own albums.  He even sang jingles.  Did that make the treasure hunt for unclaimed money interesting?

You are right, it did.  He had had so many different careers in music and and traveled far and wide performing and producing.  It was a little hard to know where to start.

So where did you begin your search?  John lived in Potomac when he died, but had also lived in Washington DC, Virginia, Tennessee and maybe other states too.

Tennessee and Nashville in particular was the first place I started because the focus of his career for many years was Nashville.  

I can’t remember. Did you find some unclaimed money accounts for John with a simple online search?  I know I suggested you look at missingmoney.com and unclaimed.org.  

I followed your instructions to the letter, going to missing money.com and unclaimed.org.  Some accounts popped right up!

As I recall, you ended up speaking to somebody in a state treasurer’s office and they told you there were even more accounts for John than you saw listed online.  Am I right?

The woman whom I spoke with was very helpful and I think she did direct me to some other accounts.  I spoke with her quite a few times as there was a lot of paper work to do.  She was also so kind and sympathetic.  Some of the accounts I found were not his.  But she found some that I had missed.  

Explain how musicians get paid because I think that’s part of how some of his money came to be lost.  Am I right?  

Its so confusing!!! and during the almost 20 years we were together, the ways musicians are compensated changed dramatically and became even more confusing.  Musicians can be paid for performing, producing, publishing (writing) and licensing or a combination of all of those.  At John’s level they are paid when they produce recordings and sometimes also accept payment at the ‘back end’ meaning that as the recording sells they are paid a percentage.  When films, commercials and TV shows use their work, they’re paid royalties or a lump sum or both depending on what they agree to.  

Can you tell if all of John’s unclaimed money was from his music career?  Or were there also more mundane listings like the rest of us might have?

There was one sizable check from one of his record labels and some were just refunds from this or that.   I don’t know how he ended up missing out on this money.  He could have really used it when he was ill.  

Was it hard to claim John’s money?  I know you’re the executor of his estate, so that gave you standing to do it.

It wasn’t hard but it was a little tedious. I had to document past addresses, work places, then was required to send all the legal documents regarding his estate.  I got to know the local Notary Republic very well!

OK, Tamara, the big question: You received a check for John’s unclaimed money.  How much was it for?
$5,249! 

Wow, that’s real money.  Did you use it for anything special?
The money went towards the estate tax bill so nothing exciting.  But it was so helpful.  And it was fun to celebrate with you and Kris afterwards and drink a toast to John!

And, finally, what advice do you have for others who have lost a loved one, as far as going ahead and doing a search for unclaimed money?
I wasn’t able to do this search until more than a year had passed but it was rewarding and ultimately felt like John was giving me a gift and making my life a little easier.  I would tell folks to let their emotions and their heart be their guide.  I couldn’t have done this search soon after John died.  It took a long time for me to have energy or interest in doing the search.  You helped me so much Eli.  I would never have done this search had it not been for you!!!  

Tamara, thank you so much for sharing your story and your inspiration!

And, a program note, next week I will begin a series of “find yours” segments where I tell you websites where you can search for unclaimed royalties specifically for musicians, actors and other performers.

Search for your unclaimed money: missingmoney.com

Find your unclaimed property: www.unclaimed.org

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 64~ FIND YOURS: If You Had An FHA-Insured Mortgage, You May Be Eligible For a Refund From HUD!

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

First, lets untangle the government-speak. Why do bureaucrats love acronyms? FHA stands for Federal Housing Administration. HUD is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA loans are special mortgages insured by HUD that require lower down payments of just 3 to 5 percent and help people who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get into a home. If this is you, there are a couple different types of unclaimed funds available.
First is a refund for paying for mortgage insurance. This would apply to you if:
If you got your FHA mortgage after September 1st 1983.
You paid for mortgage insurance up front when you closed.
You did not default on your payments while you had the loan.
The second type of HUD/FHA unclaimed money is a share of any excess earnings from the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. You would be eligible for this type of refund if you:
A, originated your loan before September 1, 1983
B, paid on your loan for more than seven years and
and C, had your FHA insurance terminated before November 5, 1990.
I know, confusing. But remember: Mortgage insurance is insurance you pay that guarantees to pay off your mortgage if you stop paying. These HUD/FHA refunds are for people who either sold the house or successfully finished up the term of the mortgage without that insurance ever being needed. It’s kind of like putting down a deposit to get a secured credit card. Once you’ve proven your creditworthiness, you get that deposit back.
But here’s the best part: Even if you don’t quite get the lingo, you can search your name in HUD’s database in mere minutes. Just enter your name, FHA case number, city and state and you’ll get a thumbs up or down. And, of course, I will link you to the HUD page where you can do this search from EasyMoneySHow.com/64. Let me know how it goes!

HUD web page to search for unclaimed FHA refunds:
entp.hud.gov/dsrs/refunds/

Please follow and like us:

EPISODE 63~ FIND YOURS: How to Negotiate With a Professional Unclaimed Money Finder and Get Your Money for Less!

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

Now, I’m on the record as saying that for MOST unclaimed money searches, you do not need to hire professional help at all. Just go to MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org and conduct your own search for free. BUT in the course of doing this show, I’ve met some finders who persuaded me that in certain situations you do want and need their help: namely really tricky searches or searches for long lost ancestors.
And now, I’ve just read a Consumer Reports article that gives one more instance when you might pay a FInder. The magazine says some states release brand new unclaimed money information to Finders before they release it to the public. (I don’t agree with this practice, but there it is.) Usually this early heads up would be about unclaimed money that is on its way from banks and other financial firms TO the state. Fresh meat, so to speak. If you hear from a Finder about this sort of unclaimed money and you are in a pressing financial situation where you could really use that money ASAP, then maybe you work with the Finder to locate and claim it.
BUT here’s the point I’ve been working my way toward: don’t just go with whatever commission deal the Finder offers you. Many Finders will ask for 30 to 40 percent of your money in exchange for telling you where it is and maybe helping you claim it. Bogus! That is way too much. First, press them to tell you how much money of yours is out there. Then negotiate a commission of 10 percent or less, depending on the size of the pot you’re talking about. Put it in writing and include a clause that says you pay nothing until the unclaimed money check is safely deposited —and clears— your bank. Think about it: They get NOTHING without you, so you have tremendous leverage to negotiate a better deal.

Please follow and like us: