unclaimed property sta annual conference amelia island, florida october 2006

Unclaimed Property

STA ANNUAL CONFERENCEAMELIA ISLAND, FLORIDA

OCTOBER 2006

NAUPA On a national basis, NAUPA members

are currently holding over $23 billion in abandoned assets.

In 2005, the states processed over 1.3 million claims and returned approximately $1.2 billion in abandoned funds to the rightful owners.

NAUPA

Recent press release from West Virginia touted their unclaimed property return rate of 117 percent for fiscal year 2006.

The state received $9.8 million in holder remittances and paid $11 million in claims.

NAUPA States are able to return a significant amount

of previously abandoned funds because of expanded outreach efforts such as:

MISSINGMONEY.COM

NAUPA MISSINGMONEY.COM is a website intended

to provide individuals and businesses with a comprehensive resource for researching unclaimed property.

38 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia either send or are currently in the process of sending their unclaimed property database to MISSINGMONEY.COM

NAUPA The ability to search for unclaimed

property in a variety of states with a single entry is extremely beneficial in our highly mobile society.

MISSINGMONEY.COM also provides a direct link to the Unclaimed Property programs in all 50 states.

NAUPA In addition to owner outreach

programs, states also put an emphasis on holder education programs.

At a national level, NAUPA’s Holder Education Subcommittee has proposed the possibility of a joint NAUPA/UPPO regional training seminar in the near future.

NAUPA

Recent NAUPA Executive Committee efforts have focused on the mutual benefits of consistency among state Unclaimed Property programs with the establishment of the NAUPA Uniformity and Standardization Committee.

NAUPA Steve Larson (Iowa) is the Chair of the

Uniformity and Standardization Committee and Heather Wittman (Morgan Stanley) is the Vice Chair.

The committee is comprised of seven members – four state representatives and three industry representatives including Mike Ryan from Red Roar Tech and Dave Bourgoin of Marketsphere Consulting.

NAUPA The mission of the Standardization

Committee is to develop and foster uniform legislation, practices or procedures related to the administration of state Unclaimed Property laws and programs.

NAUPA

The committee established the following goals:

Accomplish changes that can be done administratively.

Create channels of communication to effect change.

NAUPAWithin the past year, the Committee has

been very active in the following areas:

Initiating a review of current relationship codes used to indicate how the primary owner is related to additional owners of the same property.

NAUPA Brokering acceptance of the standard

NAUPA Holder Reimbursement form by all states.

Compiling a comprehensive matrix of negative reporting requirements for all states.

NAUPA

Establishing a Referral Committee to enhance open communication between the holder community and the states.

Developing a comprehensive matrix of state reciprocity requirements and guidelines.

NAUPA Recent NAST/NAUPA efforts have

focused on reuniting millions of Americans with their matured but unredeemed savings bonds.

Over $14.3 billion in U.S. Savings Bonds have reached final maturity but remain unclaimed by their owners.

NAUPA The U.S. Treasury does not currently

have an active program to locate and reunite most of these bondholders with their money.

After much discussion between Unclaimed Property policymakers, U.S. Treasury officials and members of Congress, the Unredeemed U.S. Savings Bond Return Act of 2006 has been introduced.

NAUPA The Unredeemed U.S. Savings Bond

Return Act of 2006 was introduced by representative Dave Camp. The legislation empowers states to act on behalf of the Bureau of Public Debt to find owners of matured unredeemed savings bonds and facilitate the payment of their claims.

NAUPA

The universe of unclaimed property related issues and programs continues to grow on a daily basis.

NAUPA

Our efforts to enhance communication and interaction with stakeholders will allow us to work together to locate and reunite rightful owners with their lost property.