Provides for expedited payments of abandoned property under a certain monetary threshold by the state comptroller pursuant to an abandoned property expedited payment program.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A10219
SPONSOR: Rules (McDonald) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the abandoned property law, in relation to expedited
payments of abandoned property under a certain monetary threshold
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this legislation is to expedite payment of unclaimed
funds to the rightful owner.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends the Abandoned Property Law at section 1407
by adding a new subdivision 3 to authorize the Comptroller to, regard-
less of whether a claim is filed, return any property paid or delivered
to the Comptroller to an apparent owner, after verification. This bill
also authorizes the Comptroller to promulgate regulations to establish
the threshold value of property returned, which is set at a maximum of
$250 for the first year of implementation.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Office of the State Comptroller, and more specifically the Office of
Unclaimed Funds (OUF), is charged with returning unclaimed funds to the
rightful owners. OUF engages in expansive outreach to alert owners of
abandoned property in its custody while striving to minimize fraud or
other risks that could result in the funds being paid to anyone other
than the rightful owner.
In an effort to expedite OUF's unclaimed funds process, this proposal
seeks to permit the payment of certain unclaimed funds under an estab-
lished monetary threshold. To achieve this goal, this proposal author-
izes the Comptroller to, regardless of whether a claim is filed, return
unclaimed property paid or delivered to the Comptroller to an apparent
owner, after verification that the apparent owner is the rightful owner
of the property. In the first year of implementation, the expedited
process will apply to claims under $250, which can subsequently be
adjusted at the discretion of the Comptroller in subsequent years.
By supplementing the current practice of mailing outreach letters to
encourage apparent owners to file a claim, OUF will be able to return
funds to the rightful owners more quickly.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
