Unclaimed property examinations and new types of regulatory inquiries will pose major challenges for US companies in 2024. Not only are states pushing ahead with more examinations, but many states are using new techniques to...more
Many organizations have recently received a notice from the Delaware Department of Finance Office of Unclaimed Property requesting a sworn verification of the completeness and accuracy of their unclaimed property reporting....more
All nine Supreme Court Justices sided with a group of 30 states in a dispute with Delaware over hundreds of millions of dollars of unclaimed checks issued by MoneyGram, a money transfer company. The Court held that the...more
Unclaimed property audits and compliance changes will challenge many US companies in 2023. Any company that is not filing annual reports will be at risk of an expensive multi-year audit, and even long-time filers could be...more
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on October 3, 2022 on an unclaimed property case for the first time since the early 1990s. The case, Delaware v. Pennsylvania, is a state-versus-state dispute between Delaware and...more
The California State Legislature has passed legislation giving the Controller the green light to establish a California Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP) for holders of unclaimed property. The bill, A.B. 2280,...more
“Corporate evasion is corporate fraud,” the California Attorney General declares in a March 22, 2022 press release accompanying an unclaimed property complaint the State has filed alleging systemic failure to report and remit...more
On June 1, 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision to quash an administrative subpoena seeking extensive records in an unclaimed property audit of AT&T. The Delaware Department of Finance...more
Many US companies will face the threat of increased unclaimed property exposure in 2021 as states and private litigants ramp up audits, litigation and legislative changes designed to increase payments to states. Although...more
The long-running dispute between states and the business community over the expansive nature of unclaimed property audits has taken a new turn, with a Delaware state court quashing a subpoena served in the course of an audit...more
Unclaimed property audits and compliance issues will continue to be a challenge for companies in a wide range of industries. States view escheat as an important source of revenue, and contingent fee auditors will do their...more
1/29/2020
/ Abandoned Property ,
Audits ,
Capital Estimation Tool ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Due Process ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Enforcement ,
Escheat ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Look-Back Measurement Period ,
Pending Litigation ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
SECURE Act ,
State and Local Government ,
State Attorneys General ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Unclaimed Property ,
Voluntary Disclosure
A wave of new unclaimed property statutes and rules is changing whether and when businesses should escheat gift, payroll, loyalty, and other stored-value cards. Ten states have adopted new statutes or rules in this area over...more
8/25/2019
/ Amended Legislation ,
Audits ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Escheat ,
Gift-Cards ,
New Legislation ,
Payroll Cards ,
Retailers ,
State and Local Government ,
Unclaimed Property ,
Uniform Law Commission (ULC)
After four-plus years of litigation in a long-running dispute over unredeemed gift cards, a jury returned a verdict against Overstock.com, finding that the company violated the Delaware False Claims Act (FCA) by not reporting...more
The payment of a traditional individual retirement account or annuity (IRA) over to a state unclaimed property fund will now be subject to federal tax withholding and reporting, according to Rev. Rul. 2018-17 released by the...more
As promoters of cryptocurrencies and digital-asset exchanges face intense scrutiny from tax, securities and other financial services regulators, they will soon have to contend with unclaimed property (or escheat) laws in the...more
Legislation requiring the life insurance industry to conduct searches of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF) and set the trigger for the escheatment dormancy period at the date of an insured’s death...more
Onerous unclaimed property audits and vexing compliance issues will continue to challenge companies in a wide range of industries in 2018. Even with the robust economy, new federal tax provisions will push states to view...more
Delaware is instituting an aggressive push forward on its controversial unclaimed property audit program, as indicated in two recent announcements. The Secretary of State has announced that his office will begin sending...more
A facial challenge to Delaware’s use of contingency-fee unclaimed property auditors has been given new life by a federal appellate court, which held that the arrangement is subject to due process review, reversing the lower...more
Delaware and its third-party auditors intend to continue using the same controversial estimation techniques in unclaimed property audits, as described in newly proposed regulations, even after a federal court found a...more
Marking its second decision on the issue, the Delaware federal district court has held that the U.S. Supreme Court’s priority rules governing the distribution of unclaimed property among competing states do not apply to...more
Facing widespread criticism about the enforcement of its unclaimed property laws, Delaware has just completed a wholesale revision of its unclaimed property statute. The statutory overhaul has passed both houses of the...more
Disputes over the unclaimed property priority rules continue to intensify. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted review of a clash involving more than 20 states regarding the right to take custody of official checks. ...more
The 2016 Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (2016 Act) was adopted unanimously by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) in a 49-0 vote at its 2016 summer meeting. The adoption of the revised model law is a significant step forward for...more
8/12/2016
/ Audits ,
B2B Transactions ,
Contingency Fees ,
De Minimus Quantity Exemption ,
Death Benefits ,
Escheat ,
Life Insurance ,
Securities ,
State Treasurers ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Unclaimed Gift Cards ,
Unclaimed Property ,
Uniform Law Commission (ULC)
The latest salvo in an ongoing battle against Delaware was fired on June 9, when 21 states, led by Texas and Arkansas, filed a motion in the U.S. Supreme Court to force Delaware to return to the States between $150 million...more