5 Key Takeaways | 2024 Emerging Trends: Delaware Unclaimed Property VDA and Multistate Audits
Do Gift Cards Keep on Giving How the Law Affects the Consumer, the Retailer and the State
On January 19, 2023, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed two 2022 trial court orders, holding that initiating an unclaimed property audit does not toll (or freeze) the running of the statute of limitations (time-bar) for...more
CITY HALL- New Bill Targets Removing Lead from School Water Councilmember Helen Gym is proposing a bill that would require all Philadelphia public schools to install modern water filters wherever school water can be tapped...more
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law various bills on June 17, including the state budget bill, S.B. 2017 (Budget Bill), which contains several provisions intended to raise revenue. Other bills passed in both the...more
What in the world is unclaimed property and escheat? And why are tax people dealing with it? Matt Hunsaker gives a basic high-level overview of the world of unclaimed property....more
Our Unclaimed Property Team examines a pair of fast-tracked Delaware bills that would reform a swath of the state’s escheat laws in response to ongoing litigation and other disputes over audits and voluntary disclosure...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
For years, Delaware has used contract audit firms to enforce their unclaimed property laws and paid them based, at least partially, on the amount recovered. Motivated by this financial reward and empowered as an agent of the...more
Banks, insurers and other financial services companies, as well as other companies holding unclaimed property, are automatically liable for interest that accrues on unclaimed property held by them in New York, without having...more
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
Colorado has joined the list of states updating their unclaimed property laws by adopting a version of RUUPA that repeals its existing $25 reporting deduction but preserves the state’s existing treatment of gift cards. Our...more
A recent written auditor request indicates an aggressive position and differing treatment on previously exempt Illinois business-to-business property. Other states are poised to follow. Illinois contingent fee auditors...more
Our Unclaimed Property Group examines the latest challenge to Delaware’s Escheats Law, regulations, and audit practices. - Lawsuit in response to state subpoena of holder’s records - Substantive challenge to audit...more
A California state court recently enjoined the state from enforcing two rules adopted by the Office of the State Controller without compliance with the California Administrative Procedure Act (APA) concerning the state’s...more
The pace of developments in the unclaimed life insurance benefits space remained active in the first six months of 2018, with new judicial decisions and state legislative enactments making an impact....more
The states employ unclaimed property laws (also referred to as escheat laws) to determine if property owned by one person but that is in the possession of another person is subject to the state’s control after the period of...more
The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act, which requires insurers to periodically match their policies, annuity contracts, and retained asset accounts against the United States Social Security Administration’s Death Master...more
Exactly two weeks after introduction, Delaware’s major unclaimed property overhaul bill – SB 13 – passed both the Senate and the House of Delaware’s General Assembly on January 26. The bill is now on the desk of newly...more
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently announced proposed amendments to its local rules. The proposed amendments will not take effect until December 1, 2016, but we could not wait...more
Another federal judge slams Delaware’s unclaimed property audit methodology but rejects the holder’s reliance on the priority rules as a defense to the audit demands. See Marathon Petroleum Corp. et al. v. Cook et al., No....more
The court case challenging Delaware’s unclaimed property audit methodologies has settled following an opinion brutalizing Delaware’s position. This settlement leaves the US District Court for the District of Delaware...more