As expected, the New Jersey Gift Card legislation is already causing businesses to stop selling gift cards in the state. American Express and InComm (a major gift card supplier for Visa, Barnes & Noble, and Starbucks to name a few), became the first to pull its prepaid gift cards out of all retailers located in New Jersey. Both companies announced that the administrative burden of collecting zip codes at the point-of-sale was the basis for their decision. The legislation, intended to lay claim to gift cards sold in the state, was highly criticized not only because of the resulting administrative issues, but also because of its contradiction to the Unclaimed Property priority rules.

While the law isn’t in effect yet, the move by American Express and InComm was a preemptive measure to reduce the risk of selling gift cards in New Jersey and other businesses are certain to follow suit. While it is yet to be seen what impact this discontinuance in sales will have on other businesses or the proposed legislation, it is quite clear that the new gift card rules will not only adversely affect unclaimed property holders, but also New Jersey consumers. As always, we will keep you updated on any developments as they arise.

Next week, the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO) will be hosting its annual conference in Orlando, Florida. This event promises to be very informative with several state representatives, service providers and holders present.

The comprehensive agenda includes unclaimed property basics, education on due diligence, annual reporting, rebates and gift cards, and seminars dedicated to preparing for and managing an unclaimed property audit. The breakout sessions are categorized in to three experience levels, from basic to advanced, to ensure an educational and inspiring experience for all attendees.

As in the past, several members of the MarketSphere team will be attending this event. Come by and see us at our booth!

For details of the conference, click HERE

The ongoing insurance audits have taken another surprising turn as state and federal regulators push to maintain the confidentiality of Social Security numbers. With the rise of identity theft, data security has become a legitimate concern, but it comes at a huge cost to insurers that use that information to identify deceased policyholders.

In previous posts, we have discussed the new policies and procedures that insurance regulators are trying to enforce. Namely, requiring insurers to perform a regular match of their open policies against the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF). This list of SSN data is compiled by the US Department of Commerce and is sold to a variety of businesses ranging from insurers to genealogical websites. Concerned with the misuse of that data, some states, including Florida, want to prevent that information from being sold or, at a minimum, increase regulation as to who can access the information, so asin order to protect the identities of their residents.

This presents obvious problems for insurers as they attempt to comply with the new cross-referencing requirements being imposed. It is unclear at this point what would become of the mandatory scrub against the DMF data if it no longer available in its current form, but we will be sure to provide updates as things progress state-by-state.

More information on this topic can be found on the House Ways and Means Committee website located here: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=276834