Finland Co-op offers share buyback for 1966 to 1968 shares
Lake County families with Finland Co-op shares from 1966 to 1968 have until Aug. 31 to cash them in, swap them or donate them before unclaimed shares go to the community fund.
Lake County residents and heirs who may still hold Finland Cooperative Company shares issued between Jan. 1, 1966, and Dec. 31, 1968 have until Aug. 31, 2026, to act before those shares are donated to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund. The co-op’s buyback gives owners three choices: donate the shares, redeem them for current shares, or redeem them for cash.
Old paper shares and inherited equity can sit untouched long after a member has moved, died or changed addresses. For heirs, that can mean a missed financial claim. For the co-op, it means ownership records that no longer reflect who is eligible to participate today.
Finland Cooperative Company, based at 6648 Highway 1 in Finland, is Minnesota’s oldest continuously operating co-op and dates its start to 1913. Local farmers organized the business that year to help with marketing. The company operates under Minnesota Cooperative Law, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 308A.
Its abandoned equity policy mails notice to inactive member-owners at their last known address and gives them 60 days to update contact information before abandoned equity is donated to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund. The board will annually consider authorizing a minimum of $3,000 of the oldest abandoned equity to be returned or donated, and the policy calls for annual publication in the local paper of record.
The community fund is a separate nonprofit entity created in 2017, and it supports a $350 annual scholarship for area youth. Board minutes from October 2023 recorded a $2,940 deposit from share buyback activity, and September 2024 minutes recorded 843 shares paid outright while other shares were donated to the fund.
Similar notices ran in 2023, 2024 and 2025, each with an Aug. 31 deadline and each covering an earlier share range.
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