There could be state on the recipient, since in-memory state is integrated before persistent state. This is why I suspected that the exists() check is an optimisation, since integrating in-memory state will result in a cache loader put() as well. And as for passivation, if the state is in-memory (after integrating in-memory state), it won't (and shouldn't) be in the cacheloader. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4155419#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...