KeepUP™ Blog

This blog was originally created at the request of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) organization and posted to their website in August 2019 in a series dedicated to the education of its’ members and attendees of the 2019 AFP Annual Conference in Boston, Oct, 20-23.

The likelihood of an unclaimed property audit has increased in recent years due to several factors, including the proliferation of third-party auditors, realization by states that significant amounts are involved, and the escalation of unclaimed property litigation. Escheat compliance is no longer optional and being audited is not a matter of if, but when.

Situations and events that may bring an auditor to your door include:

• Failure to file or filing late
• Filing negative reports year after year
• Filing incomplete reports or reports that don’t match remittance
• Not filing in the state’s required format
• Not reporting property types that are standard for your industry
• Reporting much less than similar organizations
• Filing to the incorrect state
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Claiming property without being compliant

Over the last several years the use of block-chain technologies and their associated cryptocurrencies have grown tremendously. As with many new areas of commerce, growth is usually followed by an onslaught of challenges brought on as governments and regulatory agencies try to decide how to adapt to or fit this new square peg into the round hole of already established laws and regulations.

In the world of unclaimed property, cryptocurrency is just now being recognized in various new statutes and proposed legislation.  Many states, including IL, KY, NV, TN and UT, have adopted some form of the 2016 Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, which includes “virtual currency” in the legislative definition of “property”.  In addition, NY has recently introduced legislation calling for unclaimed cryptocurrency to be escheated to the state upon abandonment.

Whether you are a company that has emerged as a part of the support system to the cryptocurrency world (e.g., coin exchanges) or simply a company that has begun to accept Bitcoin or other similar cryptocurrencies as payment, it will be important that you are prepared for these challenges and are proactively addressing potential issues that can emerge. One often overlooked area for consideration, is the impact of the various states’ unclaimed property laws and regulations.

State enforcement of unclaimed property compliance continues to rise.  States are auditing more companies than ever in order to validate that unclaimed property is being reported accurately and completely.  To prevent an audit, many holders over-report property, escheating items that are not actually unclaimed property, or may not be reportable to the states. However, this practice could cause red flags.

The two most common transaction types that are not considered to be unclaimed property are accounting errors and exclusions/exemptions.

Accounting Errors

Accounting errors are not unclaimed property.  Unfortunately, errors in accounting systems do occur that cause items to appear to be outstanding or unresolved, when in fact they are not. This leads to the potential for over-reporting.  Examples of accounting errors include:

• duplicate payments
• voids that were never processed
• misapplied payments.

Prior to reporting, research should be performed to identify and correct accounting errors and avoid over-reporting.   

Exclusions/Exemptions

Many state statutes include provisions that exclude certain transactions from the definition of unclaimed property, or specifically exempt the property from reporting.  An example of a state exclusion appears in the Kansas unclaimed property law, whereby:

Even though it seems like a long way away, Fall unclaimed property reports will be due before you know it.  With Fall states reports generally having deadlines of November 1, now is the time to create a checklist to ensure you meet the deadlines.  The following, while not in-depth, contains the most important tasks for you to perform.

1. Understand State Requirements

Before starting the process, it is imperative that holders understand existing state statutes and regulations, and determine whether there have been any changes from the previous year that may impact the current year’s filings.  If you use software, you should ensure that you are using the most current update provided by the software vendor. Unclaimed property law is a dynamic environment. Over the last few years, some states have made minor changes to their unclaimed property laws and administrative rules while other states have significantly overhauled their unclaimed property laws.  With all of these changes and more changes likely on the horizon, it is more vital than ever to keep current with the statutory environment.

On April 16, 2019 Colorado joined the growing group of states that has adopted RUUPA, when the governor signed S.B. 19-088, the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (“Act”) into law.  The Act is effective July 1, 2020 and while it contains many of RUUPA’s provisions it also includes certain provisions that are not contained in RUUPA. 

The legislation makes many changes to the existing statute, the highlights of which include repealing the existing reporting deduction, stipulating record retention requirements, allowing use of estimation methods for the failure to retain records, imposing interest and penalties for failure to act in a timely manner and providing a transitional provision.

Reporting deduction eliminated

Colorado’s current unclaimed property statute provides that “A holder may voluntarily, prior to payment or delivery of said abandoned property, deduct and retain [2%] of the value of the property or [$25] whichever is more per item…”. The Act does not include a similar provision.

Retention of records

The Act provides that “a holder required to file a[n unclaimed property] report … shall retain records for ten years after the later of the date the report was filed or the last date a timely report was due to be filed, unless a shorter period is provided by rule of the administrator”.

Many people are aware that all states and jurisdictions have abandoned property statutes.  These statutes are the basis for how holders report, what they report and various related matters.  A knowledge of these statutes can make the often-complex filing process a little easier to understand.

However, many unclaimed property statutes also include language permitting the state to make complimentary regulations that further define and explain issues that may not be specifically addressed in the statute.  States regularly update their regulations and these updates may not receive significant exposure. This lack of exposure may create problems for holders because an understanding of both statute and regulations is necessary for a holder to be confident that they are in compliance with a state’s unclaimed property requirements.

One recent example of a regulation occurred in December 2018, when Tennessee proposed a regulation that clarifies the obligations of both the Unclaimed Property Division and holders of unclaimed property. It rewrites pre-existing unclaimed property rules with updated provisions.  The purpose of these proposed rules is to bring the Unclaimed Property Division's rules into compliance with new statutory changes to the Tennessee Code Annotated since the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act was passed in 2017.  The document detailing the proposed regulations states: 

MarketSphere Unclaimed Property Specialists has learned that the State of Delaware began sending out a significant number of unclaimed property audit notices in early January 2019.

Pursuant to 12 Del. C. § 1172(a), the State of Delaware cannot initiate a new abandoned or unclaimed property examination unless the company has first been notified in writing by the Secretary of State that it may enter the Delaware VDA program. 

As we advised in our December blog entitled “Delaware Unclaimed Property Notice Letter”, Delaware had been busy filling companies’ mailboxes with Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (“VDA”) program invitations. Companies had 60 days to respond to the invitation or be referred to the Department of Finance for audit.  Following up on these invitations, the State has now begun mailing unclaimed property audit notices to companies that did not respond timely to these invitations. 

Within the last 18 months, the state of Tennessee has enacted two new statutes significantly changing their unclaimed property law.

House Bill 420

On May 25, 2017, House Bill 420 was signed into law.  This new law repealed and reenacted the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA) and is Tennessee’s version of the 2016 Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.  It included reductions in dormancy periods, dormancy trigger changes and new due diligence requirements, among other measures.  It also introduced new provisions for certain property types, including stored value cards, and provided for new reporting and payment requirements.

Dormancy Changes

The biggest change to the Tennessee unclaimed property law included the reduction from five to three years in the dormancy periods for most property types. However, under the new law, payroll properties have a one- year dormancy and stored value cards have a five-year dormancy.

MarketSphere has been made aware that holders may be receiving notices from the State of Delaware.  The following is a recent posting to the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO) website concerning these notices detailing interaction with the Delaware State Escheator. 

UPPO recently received reports that Delaware unclaimed property staff has notified some holders that they are required to submit a copy of their policies and procedures as part of their annual filing. In response, UPPO reached out to Delaware State Escheator Brenda Mayrack, requesting clarification. Following is her response:

Holders breathe a sigh of relief when December rolls around.  Fall unclaimed property filings are mostly complete with only a couple of December deadlines remaining.  Time to sit back and relax through the holidays, right?  Not if you want to make your spring and summer unclaimed property reporting seasons run smoothly.

The first spring unclaimed reporting deadlines start in March and roll on from there in a steady stream until the summer reports due at the beginning of July. Mixed in between now and those spring and summer deadlines are holidays, year-end close, financial reporting requirements, quarter closes, and all your other day to day tasks and deadlines not related to unclaimed property. Below are a few things that you and your unclaimed property team can start doing now to keep ahead of the game.

• Reissue checks for the due diligence responses you received during the fall mailings. Besides just being a good business practice, reissuing these items sooner rather than later will help keep down the complaints from property owners regarding delays in receiving their money. These properties have been dormant for years. Now that the owners know about them, they want their money as soon as possible.