Attention: IIM Account Heirs

Dear Dr. Per Cap:

I got an email the other day that says I might be eligible to receive money from the Cobell lawsuit. I thought all Cobell settlement claims had already been paid out. Is this a new settlement?

Signed,

Frank

 

Dear Frank,

The claim notification you received is not a new settlement. It’s part of the original Cobell v. Salazar class action lawsuit settled in 2009. Here’s a quick review to better understand what’s happening now:

The historic settlement was reached between lead plaintiffs who included the late Blackfeet tribal elder and activist, Eloise Cobell, and the federal government, aka the defendant. The case involved mismanagement and improper accounting of individual Indian trust funds, along with mismanagement of trust land and other assets. It resulted in a $3.4 billion settlement for the plaintiffs that was divided as follows.

  • $2 billion allocated to land consolidation
  • $1.4 billion allocated to plaintiffs (which included approximately 300,000 individual Indian money account holders)

For more details, I reached out to Bill Dorris, an attorney with Kilpatrick, Townsend, and Stockton, one of the law firms that represented the Cobell plaintiffs. Bill explained that of those 300,000 IIM account holders, approximately 24,000 were deceased individuals for whom lawful heirs could not be determined when Cobell distributions wrapped up in August of 2018.

However, as part of the settlement, the court left open the door to file claims for seven years. Your claim notification pertains to heirs of those deceased IIM account holders. Approximately 25% of these heirs have been located; however, there are still roughly 17,000 IIM accounts for which heirs have not been located.

$38 million of the $1.4 billion allocated to plaintiffs is set aside for these accounts that can fall into one or both of two classes. The first class can receive payments of about $1,000 and the second class can receive a minimum payment of $863. Keep in mind that most deceased IIM account holders are included in both classes, so the average total claim award for heirs is just under $2,000.

However, it’s really important to understand that this is not new, supplemental, or additional money for an IIM account holder who already received a Cobell award. These current claims only apply to a lawful heir of a deceased person who couldn’t be located.

If you think you might be an heir of an IIM account holder who was deceased around the time of the Cobell settlement, it’s certainly worth your time to submit a claim by the June 30th, 2025, deadline. In the event your application is approved by the claim administrator, payment is usually processed in a few weeks.

For more information on determining eligibility and filing a claim, check out CobellSettlement.com or call 800-961-6109.

 

Ask Dr. Per Cap is a program funded by First Nations Development Institute with assistance from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org. To send a question to Dr. Per Cap, email askdrpercap@firstnations.org.