Posted on Monday, 30th January 2012 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Recently, Val Jundt, Keane’s Managing Director of Consulting and Advisory Services, had the opportunity to sit down with the National Association of Credit Management (NACM) and give a few pointers on reporting unclaimed property. Val notes some of the more common mistakes in unclaimed property compliance, as well as some hints for companies that have not previously reported unclaimed property. You can read the entire article from the NACM by clicking here or read more below.

The article below is from the National Association of Credit Management Blog.

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Posted on Friday, 6th January 2012 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

On January 5, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued its opinion in the case of New Jersey Retail Merchants Association v. Sidamon-Eristoff which concerns several plaintiffs’ challenges against NJ A3002, the bill passed on June 30, 2010.  The bill featured major changes to New Jersey’s approach to unclaimed gift certificates, stored value cards, and gift card escheatment; beginning with the requirement that they be reported, which was previously not the case in New Jersey.  Also, holders were to record the zip code of gift card purchasers and, if the address of the purchaser was unknown, holders were to report those cards to New Jersey on the basis of a “place of purchase” presumption.

As previously discussed here, Keane had described how the District Court in New Jersey held that the “place of purchase” presumption ran afoul of the priority rules outlined in the United States Supreme Court opinion of Texas v. New Jersey and granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and now the Third Circuit has affirmed that decision of the District Court.

While the Third Circuit agreed with the District Court that the “place of purchase” presumption was invalid, the Third Circuit upheld New Jersey’s right to require holders to collect zip codes from gift card purchasers.  The District Court had granted the preliminary injunction against the zip code collection requirement, also referred to as the data collection requirement, on the basis that its only purpose was to facilitate the escheatment of gift cards pursuant to the “place of purchase” presumption.  The Third Circuit held that the zip code collection requirement was severable from the “place of purchase” presumption.  The Third Circuit stated that this data collection is consistent with the Supreme Court holdings in Texas v. New Jersey and other decisions because those decisions have consistently allowed for states to escheat pursuant to the last known address of the purchaser.  The opinion of the Third Circuit is vague as to whether or not the Third Circuit considered a zip code as solely sufficient to establish an address to report unclaimed property under the first priority rule in Texas v. New Jersey.

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Posted on Wednesday, 28th December 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

This past year, the State of New York instituted a small change to its Unclaimed Property Handbook.  Through their rounds of unclaimed property audits within the mutual fund industry, it has come to light that this seemingly minor change will have a significant impact on accounts with a Dividend Reinvest option. More specifically, this update to the unclaimed property handbook results in accounts becoming eligible for escheatment based upon three (3) years of inactivity as soon as the two (2) SEC Rule 17Ad-17 mandated searches are completed. The State of New York no longer requires a full two (2) year period of return mail. This may accelerate Dividend Reinvestment reporting by as much as 2 years.

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Posted on Thursday, 2nd June 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Keane consultants continue to lend their unclaimed property compliance expertise and advice to the media. This week, Bankers Digest included an article written by Valerie Jundt, the managing director of our Consulting & Advisory Services group. The article (click here to read), titled, “Financial Institutions Face Set of Regulations for Unclaimed Property,” discusses how financial institutions can misstep when it comes to unclaimed property reporting. In her article, Valerie discusses potential unclaimed property trouble for financial companies including:

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Posted on Friday, 13th May 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

State Enforcement Update From Keane  – May 13, 2011

On April 25th 2011, Keane reported that California’s State Controller announced a large settlement with life insurer, John Hancock, regarding an insurance company unclaimed property audit.   In his announcement, State Controller Chiang asserted that insurers are not doing enough analysis of dormant accounts; and therefore are engaging in a practice of improperly failing to pay death benefits to the beneficiaries of life insurance policies.  It appears that the issues uncovered during California’s audit concerning the life insurer’s practices and compliance with unclaimed property laws have caused an escalation of the attention paid by the States to the insurance industry.  It has now been reported that 37 states have hired the third party audit firm, Verus, to determine whether life insurers are doing enough to find out whether life insurance policy insureds have died, locate the beneficiaries when the insureds have died, and turn unclaimed property over to the appropriate state agencies.
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Posted on Wednesday, 13th April 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

We regularly receive questions from California companies and others regarding how the California unclaimed property reporting process works. Below is a brief summary of what is required.

California unclaimed property reporting rules have been confusing holders since August 24, 2007, when then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 86. Among other measures, this legislation included a provision requiring companies to use a two-step approach to reporting unclaimed property and delivering it to the State of California Controller’s Office.

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Posted on Wednesday, 30th March 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Proposed on February 17, 2011 and passed on March 25, 2011, HB 174 marks the first major unclaimed property legislation passage of 2011. The bill makes two major changes to securities reporting in Idaho: (1) the dormancy trigger will now be a combination of inactivity and RPO, instead of pure inactivity, and (2) the requirements for reporting dividend reinvestment program accounts (DRP accounts) are now clearly spelled out.. More details are provided below.

Previously, Idaho only recognized pure inactivity as a dormancy trigger for securities. Under HB 174, any stock, shareholding or other intangible ownership interest in a business association is “considered” abandoned if the owner of such interest (1) fails to either claim a dividend, distribution, or other sum payable or communicate with the association regarding the interest or a dividend, distribution; and (2) the location of the owner is unknown at the end of the five (5) year dormancy period.

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Posted on Monday, 21st March 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Costco is suing the State of Washington over $3.2 million in unclaimed rebates. The lawsuit is in response to an order mandated by the state in February that Costco owed more than $3 million in unused rebates. The state says the funds belong in a state-managed program for consumers who want to claim the rebates. In Costco’s suit, however, the company alleges it should not have to turn over the requested funds as it engaged a third party rebate house to manage its rebate program. Because the company does not retain the amounts at issue, it doesn’t believe it owes the state anything.

The $3.2 million represents unclaimed Costco rebate from 2004 to 2010, plus interest.

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Posted on Thursday, 3rd March 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Faced with a massive budget shortfall and a no-new-taxes sentiment, Texas lawmakers are considering several options to generate revenue; one major option is unclaimed property reporting.  A recent San Antonio Express article titled “Lawmakers try to soften cuts,” outlines some ways Texas plans to try to protect the state budget without violating the no-new-taxes pledge. The options include deferring billions in state payments, speeding up tax collections, offering amnesty on penalties to laggard taxpayers and shortening dormancy periods for some types of unclaimed property.

Some of these measures have already been filed and others should take shape prior to the March 11th bill-filing deadline.  In the next several weeks, the House Ways and Means Committee will be holding hearings on proposals including House Bill 257, which could potentially produce $72 million by shortening dormancy periods for unclaimed property such as utility deposits, money orders, and certain types of bank accounts.

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Posted on Monday, 28th February 2011 by Keane Unclaimed Property Team

Reporting unclaimed property in Indiana? If so, pay attention! Today, February 28, 2011, is the deadline for unclaimed property reports under the Indiana Amnesty Program. Early last fall, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General instituted a one-time only unclaimed property amnesty program to help organizations holding unclaimed property come into compliance with the Unclaimed Property Reporting Act, without consequence of accrued payment and applicable penalties. Holders wishing to participate in this program had to have enrolled by October 31, 2010.

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