February 2025 │ Legislation & Regulation Update
The Unclaimed Property Legislative Alert
Summary of Legislation — Week Ending February 21, 2025
ARKANSAS: Enacted SB 14 which allows the administrator pay or deliver property to an apparent owner if the administrator reasonably believes the person is entitled to receive the property and the property has a value of $5,000 or less.
KENTUCKY: Introduced HB 733 which removes the exemption for mineral proceeds from the requirements of the unclaimed property statute.
UTAH: Introduced HB 506 which (1) allows the State Tax Commission to share email addresses with the unclaimed property administrator; (2) addresses tax exempt pension or retirement accounts and clarifies the abandonment period for tax deferred and tax exempt retirement accounts; and (3) addresses other tax exempt accounts.
Summary of Legislation — Week Ending February 14, 2025
COLORADO: Introduced HB 1224 which (1) clarifies treatment of legacy preneed contracts; (2) adds a definition for “cryptocurrency”, “legacy preneed contract”, “legacy preneed contract beneficiary”, and revises definition of “virtual currency” to include cryptocurrency; (3) provides for a 3 year abandonment period for virtual currency and clarifies the abandonment period for legacy preneed contracts; (4) decreases the retention of records requirement for holders from ten (10) to six (6) years; (5) adds a provision to clarify the reporting requirements for unclaimed legacy preneed contracts; (6) provides notice requirements to owner of legacy preneed contract; (7) requires liquidation of virtual currency thirty (30) days prior to reporting and provides safeguards to the holder and administrator regarding liquidation; (8) requires a holder that pays money or property to the administrator to file a claim for reimbursement or return of property, as applicable, within two (2) years of remitting and reporting the payment or delivery of property; (9) reduces the time the administrator may commence an action, proceeding, or examination regarding duty of holder from ten (10) to six (6) years; (10) clarifies the sale or disposition of unclaimed thinly traded securities; (11) authorizes the administrator to issue a warrant or transfer property to an operating account if administrator determines that the state, a county, a municipality or a state governmental agency owns the property; (12) allows the administrator to obtain nonpublic / unredacted documents to establish ownership prior to making payment; (13) limits the compensation to a locator for the recovery of an unclaimed overbid to not exceed 10% of the amount of overbid; and (14) eliminates the exemption for local government holders.
TENNESSEE: Introduced SB 1113 (HB 1265) which decreases the time the Treasurer has to file the unclaimed property report from four (4) months to three (3) months.
TEXAS: Introduced SB 1244 which (1) adds definition for “security” and “virtual currency”; (2) provides a 3-year abandonment period for security or virtual currency from date of return of written or electronic communication to owner; (3) describes an exercise of an act of ownership interest with respect to a security or virtual currency; (4) requires digital assets, cryptocurrency, or other tradeable virtual currency redeemable for fiat currency to be delivered in its native form to either the comptroller’s designated custodian or an in-house account at the holder established by and for the comptroller; (5) requires holder that possesses only partial private key to virtual currency to maintain virtual currency until able to be transferred; (6) requires written or electronic notice to be sent annually to last known address of owner of virtual currency not considered transferable or reportable; and (7) requires the comptroller to sell virtual currency listed on a virtual currency exchange at list price.
WASHINGTON: Introduced HB 1953 providing for the automatic payment of claims where it is determined by the administrator that the apparent owner is a local government and reasonably believes the local government is entitled to the property. If determined that the apparent owner is a local government, the administrator must annually notify the local government and may request additional documentation to determine entitlement to the property.
Summary of Legislation — Week Ending February 7, 2025
ARIZONA: Introduced HB 2749 which (1) updates the definition of “property” to include security and virtual currency; (2) provides a three (3) year abandonment period for securities and virtual currency and further defines “exercise of an act of ownership interest”; (3) requires virtual currency to be reported / delivered in its native form to a “qualified custodian” of the department within thirty (30) days after reporting; (4) prohibits the department from selling a security or virtual currency listed on the exchange for less than the price listed at the time of sale.
IDAHO: Introduced HB 165 which (1) revises maturity of an automatically renewable demand savings or time deposit account to initial date of maturity plus one (1) renewal; (2) requires electronic communication to be sent to apparent owners no later than two (2) years after last indication of interest; and (3) revises reporting timelines for property presumed abandoned.
ILLINOIS: Introduced HB 2568 which (1) adds a definition for “finder”; (2) revises the abandonment period for non-retirement tax-advantaged accounts and requires holder outreach at certain age intervals if no indication of interest; (3) requires agencies to report / remit funds owed to deceased state employees within 90 days of death if not paid to employee or their estate; (4) requires holders to hold property presumed abandoned in trust or otherwise segregate property prior to reporting; (5) revises the requirements for escheatment of abandoned state agency property; (6) authorizes the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to order regulated financial institutions to immediately report and remit unclaimed funds to the Treasurer; (7) revises the requirements for finder agreements; and (8) requires finders to be licensed and establishes a licensing program to be administered by the Treasurer.
NEW YORK: Introduced AB 3830 which requires land with unmet title revert to the Indian Nation or tribe that historically occupied the land, or to the nearest existing nation or tribe.
NEW YORK: Introduced SB 4109 which extends the dormancy period from three (3) to five (5) years for property held by banking organizations and life insurance corporations.
PENNSYLVANIA: Introduced HB 484 which (1) revises the requirements for unclaimed property finders including limiting fees to no more than 15% of the amount recovered; (2) revises the notice and information requirements of the State Treasurer relating to unclaimed property; (3) allows the State Treasurer to retain $25,000 plus 25% of the deposits / sums paid from delivery or sale of unclaimed property; (4) requires the State Treasurer to allocate 5% of the funds retained towards education and outreach relating to unclaimed property; (5) allows the State Treasurer to automatically process claims where there is a verified sole owner and the property is valued at $10,000 or less; (6) increases the penalties for holders failing to report; (7) requires the Treasury Department to establish a data sharing program; and (8) requires the State Treasurer to file an annual unclaimed property report with the Appropriations Committee of the House and Senate.
PENNSYLVANIA: Introduced HB 488 seeking to increase the value of automatic payment of unclaimed property claims to $5,000.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Introduced HB 1196 which (1) revises the definition of “Last known address” to remove the requirement that the description of location be sufficient for delivery of mail and adds a definition of “virtual currency”; (2) provides an abandonment period of three (3) years for virtual currency and process for reporting virtual currency; and (3) revises the due diligence requirements for holders.
With The Unclaimed Property Legislative Alert Summary of Legislation and Regulation, you receive an overview of the latest information on unclaimed property legislative updates, regulatory changes, and statutory amendments across the United States and Canada. The publicly available information contained herein has been compiled by Kelmar Associates, LLC and does not constitute legal advice or analysis of any kind. The summary information is generally compiled on a weekly basis, as applicable, and is shared on Kelmar's website each month. For more information, please refer to each state unclaimed property bill.