Do You Have Unclaimed Money?

If you worked as a child performer, you may have unclaimed money and not know it. 

The California Child Actor’s Bill, commonly referred to as the Coogan Act, was passed in response to the 1939 case of actor Jackie Coogan. The Addams Family TV series’ original Uncle Fester also goes down as the silver screen’s first major child star, having made millions starring alongside Charlie Chaplin. When Coogan reached the age of 21 following his father’s death, his mother and family lawyer-turned-stepfather refused to hand over any of his earnings and, through connections, blackballed Coogan from the studios.

The bill established legally mandated trusts known as Coogan Accounts that collect 15 percent of earnings made by child performers and are accessible to them upon turning 18. However, if the child or the parents cannot be found, the law requires that the money be transferred to The Actor’s Fund where it waits, sometimes decades, to be claimed.

Currently, The Actor’s Fund holds more than $3 million dollars in over 20,000 unclaimed accounts and, while it tries to locate as many account-holders as possible, thousands are being added to the rolls every year, so it’s a difficult process. In January 2018, there were more than 600 beneficiary names in the unclaimed Coogan database that held at least $1,000 in cumulative deposits. Of these, SAG-AFTRA had approximately 400 updated addresses in its database and mailed a letter to members from President Gabrielle Carteris and National Executive Director David White as a reminder. Yet, of those 400, only 152 beneficiaries successfully completed their paperwork to retrieve their earnings. The total amount received from those that claimed their disbursements was $396,720, with hope that many more will respond in the upcoming months.

Were you a young performer? Think you may be a holder of one of the many unclaimed accounts? If so, please call The Actors Fund at (323) 933-9244, ext. 440, or check unclaimedcoogan.org.