Key Florida court decision on unclaimed property

A ruling by a three-judge panel in Florida’s First District Court of Appeal held that Florida’s unclaimed property law does not make life insurance proceeds due and payable at the time of the insured’s death.

Without getting too deep into the ruling, why is it ok for an insurance company to sell a life insurance policy and then have no obligation to check if the policy holder is deceased and the policy payable to the beneficiary. 

hile the State just wants to have the policy escheated, so the money can be used to fund the general budget; at least with the money at the State, the beneficiaries stand a chance to claim the assets.  Especially with firms like Fletcher actively locating these people and advocating on their behalf.

You can read more by clicking the link below - 

Florida Court Decision

As unclaimed funds returned, less goes to N.Y. budget.

The state Comptroller's Office returned $422 million to claimants in the fiscal year that ended in March, a state record, data show. But as more money went to people who had unclaimed funds, less went to the state's budget, a drop of $187 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year.

The state had estimated it would receive $650 million from the fund last year, but got $528 million; it estimates $665 million from the fund in the current fiscal year.

You can read more about it by checking out this article by Joseph Specter in the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more...

This one is a little tricky to wrap your head around; NAUPA (the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators), which is really just an organization of the collective departments of each State Government that takes custody of abandoned/unclaimed property, has prepared formal comments meant influence the Uniform Law Commission, who is responsible for drafting the new Unclaimed Property Act.

If you break down the comments, there are really some questionable policies being set forth by the State Governments with the overt goal of expanding their ability to take custody of an ever growing body of citizens' money, while holding that information as secret as possible.  They hide their true ambitions with some clever wording.

Some major question marks:

#6 - Maintain the states' ability to utilize contract examiners and compensate them on a pay for performance basis. 

#26 -  Include the “Kansas Provision” covering unredeemed U.S. Savings Bonds.  They want to take ownership of private citizens savings bond.  Yes, they claim you can always assert a claim but then they recommend #29.

#29 - Expand confidentiality  of owner records and holder information in the possession of the State.

#30 - Reduce abandonment periods  and include an acceleration of the presumption of abandonment where the owner is deceased  or where a dormancy charge  has been imposed.

You can read all the comments here:

NAUPA Comments

$213,000 unclaimed recovery for one man

This gentleman left his old friends documents in a box for over a decade unaware that he was in fact the beneficiary of a fortune left behind.

Only by seeking professional assistance was he informed of his inheritance.

You can read more about his story by clicking the link below:

$213,000

Another example of aggressive unclaimed property legislation

By revising and expanding the scope of its unclaimed property statute, the State of Pennsylvania is solidifying its ability to collect and use an ever expanding amount of its citizens assets.

Reduced dormancy periods to 3 years is unfortunately the new normal, but most concerning here is the 3 year dormancy placed on retirement accounts.  By definition a retirement account is supposed to remain untouched for many years so that it may grow; now the Pennsylvania Treasury will lawfully be able to take custody of retirement accounts after 3 years, sell the investments and spend that money.  In the rare instance that the account is claimed, they will only be responsible for the amount of the sale.  Read more by clicking the link below:

Expansive Change

Revising the Uniform Unclaimed Property Law

The Uniform Law Commission is drafting a revised version of the uniform unclaimed property law.  

It is shocking, but not surprising that State governments organized under the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators have drafted a lengthy and detailed memo to the law commission in support of paying private third party companies a percentage of any money they can collect on behalf of the State and bring it into the unclaimed property coffers.  This aggressive policy so obviously incentivizes the collection of as much of the citizens private funds as possible under the most liberal interpretation of the statute.  

The irony is that the State governments will explicitly state that they do not advise citizens to work with private third party companies to assist them in recovering unclaimed money from the State, while at the same time employing the very same tactic to take the money in the first place.

You can read their argument by clicking the link below:

In support of private auditors.

Delaware collects more than $600 million a year in unclaimed property.

http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/323918/tax+authorities/Delaware+Unclaimed+Property+Voluntary+Disclosure+Program+Extended+to+September+30