Assisting with Owner Contact Challenges
Implementing strategies to locate rightful property owners and revive contact before and after an account is deemed “abandoned” helps reunite owners with their property, including uncashed checks, banking property, brokerage accounts, retirement funds and insurance policy benefits. Unfortunately, time and resource limitations often prevent organizations from finding and contacting their account owners, customers, investors, members or plan participants.
Many holders limit their efforts to restore communication with inactive or lost accounts. Years after the property has gone inactive, they end state-mandated due diligence letters and conduct similar required activities to fulfill retirement plan fiduciary duties. This delay hinders successful owner or heir contact and often clears only 10% to 20% of accounts. A proactive owner reunification program in advance of required due diligence time frames can significantly reduce the population of accounts that are ultimately escheated or surrendered to a third-party.
MarketSphere’s Owner Reunification Service bring together people, processes and technology to offer clients a convenient, cost-effective ways to find and reestablish contact with disconnected owners of unclaimed assets to reduce escheatment. This service also reduces the risk associated with managing ERISA-protected property by exceeding the missing participant guidelines recommended by the Department of Labor. Working with MarketSphere saves time, internal resources and costs associated with at-risk items; lowers unclaimed property liability; creates procedures for retaining owner and heir account activity; and develops solutions that drive action and go beyond regulatory search requirements.
Location, Outreach, and Mortality Search
MarketSphere’s comprehensive location, outreach and mortality searches find the information clients need to reconnect with customers and reduce unclaimed property liability.
Living Owner Accounts
MarketSphere’s search process identifies new and updated owner information.
- Includes life status, address, phone, and email.
- Exceeds requirements of SEC Rule 17Ad-17.
- Consistent with the Department of Labor’s Missing Participant Search Guidelines.
Deceased Owner Accounts
MarketSphere’s search and investigation techniques determine the legal claimant or estate representative.
- Genealogy
- Wills and estates
- Court records
Mortality Search Services
MarketSphere’s mortality search services validate deaths across business lines with “high confidence” match returns by searching multiple sources.
- Death Master File
- Obituaries
- Cemetery records
- Probate files
- State vital records
- Proactive
A proactive approach to remediating accounts before they are deemed lost or unclaimed can protect you from audits, reduce liability, control costs, fulfill fiduciary responsibilities and retain more customers. Companies can avoid, significantly reduce or even eliminate the population of accounts that are lost or dormant by successfully contacting owners early and on an ongoing basis. MarketSphere uses a global resource network to obtain owners’, participants’ or their heirs’ most current contact information.
MarketSphere’s proactive programs:
- Exceed simple database searching for better addresses.
- Focus on locating and contacting the correct parties.
- Drive property owners to take necessary action on their accounts.
- Customized
Each organization has unique needs and circumstances. MarketSphere works closely with clients to provide guidance, create customized policies and procedures that address lost and at-risk accounts, implement the best solutions for their needs and document the entire process.
MarketSphere’s customized solutions:
- Create outreach letters based on client preferences, managed via USPS, email and fax.
- Implement response mechanisms that maintain each client’s company brand.
- Offer an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) program customized for each client, which typically increases response rates.
- Provide a web response portal customized to meet client preferences, giving owners quick and easy options for updating their information.
- Comprehensive
MarketSphere’s comprehensive owner reunification services find the information needed to reduce unclaimed property liability.
MarketSphere’s search services:
- Identify new or updated owner information for living owner accounts, indicating new address/same address, phone and email.
- Ensure living owner account searches comply with SEC Rule 17Ad-17 requirements and are consistent with the Department of Labor’s Missing Participant Search Guidelines.
- Determine the legal claimant or estate representative for deceased owner accounts using genealogy records, will and estate searches, and court documents.
- Validate deaths across business lines with “high confidence” match returns using sources such as the Death Master File, obituaries, cemetery records, probate files, and state vital records.