Abandoned Property Information

What’s New

For fiscal year 2005, the Abandoned Property Division collected approximately $214 million, the third consecutive year the Division has collected over the $200 million mark.

The division has made a concerted effort to return money belonging to cities and towns. Since 2003, we have returned abandoned property to 321 out of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. It will remain a priority of the Abandoned Property Division to return funds back to municipalities.

New Outreach programs have had division representatives making on-site visits to cities and towns all over the state, including Pittsfield, Falmouth, Topsfield and Fall River. We have personnel scheduled to visit assisted living facilities, malls, fairs and other venues across the state in the coming months. For more information please click here.

Gift Certificate Law:

A law passed on June 1, 2003 requires that all gift certificates - including gift cards - issued in Massachusetts not expire for seven years from the date of purchase.

This new law enables businesses to keep the money of unredeemed gift certificates after seven years from issuance -- as long as said gift certificates have dates of issuance and expiration clearly marked on them or other means determined by the retailer making the information available. . Under the new law, gift certificates without such dates are redeemable in perpetuity. Previously, state law -- which required that gift certificates be good for a period of at least two years -- mandated merchants turn over the value of expired gift certificates to the State Treasurer's Abandoned Property Division.

Anyone with questions regarding this new law should contact either the issuing retailer directly or the:
Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
(617) 973-8787 or
(888) 283-3757 (toll free, Massachusetts only) or
via e-mail at consumer@state.ma.us