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NO. 161. AN ACT RELATING TO THE DISPOSITIONOF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY BY THE STATE.(S.158)
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the Stateof Vermont:Sec. 1. 27 V.S.A. chapter 14 is added to read:CHAPTER 14. UNCLAIMED PROPERTY§ 1241. DEFINITIONSAs used in this chapter, unless the context otherwiserequires:(1) “Apparent owner” means the person whose name appearson the records of a holder as the person entitled toproperty held, issued, or owing by the holder.(2) “Asset locator” means a person who enters into anagreement with an owner the primary purpose of which is tolocate, deliver, recover, or assist for compensation in therecovery of property that is presumed abandoned.(3) “Business association” means any corporation, jointstock company, investment company, business trust,partnership, unincorporated association, joint venture,limited liability company, trust company, safe depositcompany, financial organization, insurance company, mutualfund, utility, or other business entity consisting of one ormore persons, whether or not for profit.(4) “Domicile” means the state of incorporation of acorporation and the state of the principal place of businessof a holder other than a corporation.(5) “Financial organization” means any savings and loanassociation, savings bank, bank, banking organization, orcredit union.(6) “Holder” means a person obligated to hold for theaccount of, or deliver or pay to, the owner property that issubject to this chapter.(7) “Insurance company” means an association, corporation,or fraternal or mutual benefit organization, whether or notfor profit, engaged in the business of providing lifeendowments, annuities, or insurance, including accident,burial, casualty, credit life, contract performance, dental,disability, fidelity, fire, health, hospitalization, illness, life,malpractice, marine, mortgage, surety, wage protection,title, captive insurance and workers’ compensationinsurance.(8) “Mineral” means gas; oil; coal; other gaseous, liquid, andsolid hydrocarbons; oil shale; cement material; sand andgravel; road material; building stone, chemical raw material;gemstone; fissionable and nonfissionable ores; colloidal andother clay; steam and other geothermal resource; or anyother substance defined as a mineral by the laws of thisstate.(9) “Mineral proceeds” means amounts payable for theextraction, production, or sale of minerals, or, upon theabandonment of those payments, all payments thatbecome payable thereafter. The term includesamounts payable:(A) for the acquisition and retention of a minerallease, including bonuses, royalties, compensatoryroyalties, shut-in royalties, minimum royalties, anddelay rentals;(B) for the extraction, production, or sale ofminerals, including net revenue interests, royalties,overriding royalties, extraction payments, andproduction payments; and(C) under an agreement or option, including a jointoperating agreement, unit agreement, poolingagreement, and farm-out agreement.(10) “Money order” means an express money order ora personal money order, on which the remitter is thepurchaser. The term does not mean a bank moneyorder or any other instrument sold by a financialorganization if the seller has obtained the name andaddress of the payee.(11) “Owner” means a person, or the person’s legalrepresentative, who has a legal or equitable interestin property subject to this chapter. The termincludes a depositor in the case of a deposit, abeneficiary in the case of a trust other than adeposit in trust, and a creditor, claimant, or payee inthe case of other property.(12) “Person” means an individual, businessassociation, financial organization, estate, trust,government, governmental subdivision, agency, orinstrumentality, or any other legal or commercialentity.(13) “Property” means tangible property described insection 1243 of this title or a fixed and certaininterest in intangible property that is held, issued, orowed in the course of a holder’s business, or by agovernment, governmental subdivision, agency, orinstrumentality, and all income or incrementstherefrom. The term includes property that isreferred to as or evidenced by:(A) money, a check, draft, deposit, interest, ordividend;(B) credit balance, customer’s overpayment, securitydeposit, refund, credit memorandum, unpaid wage,unused ticket, mineral proceeds, or unidentifiedremittance;(C) stock or other evidence of ownership of aninterest in a business association or financialorganization;(D) a bond, debenture, note, or other evidence ofindebtedness;
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(E) money deposited to redeem stocks, bonds, coupons, orother securities or to make distributions;(F) an amount due and payable under the terms of anannuity or insurance policy, including policies providing lifeinsurance, property and casualty insurance, workers’compensation insurance, or health and disability insurance;and(G) an amount distributable from a trust or custodial fundestablished under a plan to provide health, welfare, pension,vacation, severance, retirement, death, stock purchase,profit sharing, employee savings, supplementalunemployment insurance, or similar benefits.(14) “Record” means information that is inscribed on atangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or othermedium and is retrievable in perceivable form.(15) “State” means a state of the United States ofAmerica, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico, or any territory or insular possession subjectto the jurisdiction of the United States of America.(16) “Treasurer” means the treasurer of the state ofVermont or a designee of the treasurer.(17) “Utility” means a person who owns or operates forpublic use any plant, equipment, real property, franchise, orlicense for the transmission of communications or theproduction, storage, transmission, sale, delivery, orfurnishing of electricity, water, steam, or gas.§ 1242. PRESUMPTIONS OF ABANDONMENT (a) Property is presumed abandoned if it is unclaimed bythe apparent owner during the time set forth below for theparticular property:(1) traveler’s check, 15 years after issuance;(2) money order, seven years after issuance;(3) all forms of checks, or any similar instrument, three years after issuance;(4) stock or other equity interest in a business associationor financial organization, including a security entitlementunder article 8 of Title 9A, three years after the earlierof:(A) the date of the most recent dividend, stock split, orother distribution unclaimed by the apparent owner; or(B) the date of the second mailing of a statement ofaccount or other notification or communication that wasreturned as undeliverable or after the holder discontinuedmailings, notifications, or communications to the apparentowner;(5) debt of a business association or financial organization,other than a bearer bond or an original issue discount bond,three years after the date of the most recent interestpayment unclaimed by the apparent owner;(6) a demand, savings, bank money order or timedeposit, including a deposit that is automaticallyrenewable, three years after the earlier of thematurity or the date of the last indication by theowner of interest in the property; however, a depositthat is automatically renewable is deemed maturedfor purposes of this section upon its initial date ofmaturity;(7) money or credits owed to a customer as a resultof a retail business transaction, three years afterthe obligation accrued;(8) amount owed by an insurer on a life or endowmentinsurance policy or an annuity that has matured orterminated, three years after the obligation to payarose or, in the case of a policy or annuity payableupon proof of death, three years after the insuredhas attained, or would have attained if living, thelimiting age under the mortality table on which thereserve is based;(9) property distributable by a business associationor financial organization in a course of dissolution,one year after the property becomes distributable;(10) property received by a court as proceeds of aclass action, and not distributed pursuant to the judgment, one year after the distribution date;(11) property held by a court, government, orgovernmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality,one year after the property becomes distributable;(12) wages or other compensation for personalservices, one year after the compensation becomespayable;(13) deposit or refund owed to a subscriber by autility, three years after the deposit or refundbecomes payable;(14) property in an individual retirement account,defined benefit plan, or other account or plan that isqualified for tax deferral under the income tax lawsof the United States, three years after the earliestof the following dates:(A) the date of the distribution or attempteddistribution of the property;(B) the date of the required distribution as stated inthe plan or trust agreement governing the plan; or(C) the date, if determinable by the holder, specifiedin the income tax laws of the United States by whichdistribution of the property must begin in order toavoid a tax penalty; and(15) all other property, three years after the owner’sright to demand the property or after the obligationto pay or distribute the property arises, whicheveroccurs first.
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(b) At the time that an interest is presumed abandonedunder subsection (a) of this section, any other propertyright accrued or accruing to the owner as a result of theinterest, and not previously presumed abandoned, is alsopresumed abandoned.(c) Property is unclaimed if, for the applicable period setforth in subsection (a) of this section, the apparent ownerhas not communicated in writing, or by other meansreflected in a contemporaneous record prepared by or onbehalf of the holder, with the holder concerning theproperty or the account in which the property is held, andhas not otherwise indicated an interest in the property. Acommunication with an owner by a person other than theholder or its representative who has not in writingidentified the property to the owner is not an indication ofinterest in the property by the owner.(d) An indication of an owner’s interest in propertyincludes:(1) the presentment of a check or other instrument ofpayment of a dividend or other distribution made withrespect to an account or underlying stock or other interestin a business association or financial organization or, in thecase of a distribution made by electronic or similar means,evidence that the distribution has been received;(2) owner-directed activity in the account in which theproperty is held, or in another account of the owner’s heldby the same business association or financial organization,including a direction by the owner to increase, decrease, orchange the amount or type of property held in the account;(3) the making of a deposit to or withdrawal from a bankaccount;(4) the payment of a premium with respect to a propertyinterest in an insurance policy; however, the application ofan automatic premium loan provision or other nonforfeitureprovision contained in an insurance policy does not prevent apolicy from maturing or terminating if the insured has diedor the insured or the beneficiary of the policy hasotherwise become entitled to the proceeds before thedepletion of the cash surrender value of a policy by theapplication of those provisions;(5) in the case of any demand, savings, or matured timedeposits with a banking or financial organization, includingdeposits that are automatically renewable, the holder hassent the owner by first class mail a statement of accountor other associated mailing from the bank or financialinstitution, which has not been returned by the postalservice as undeliverable. In the event the mailing wasreturned as undeliverable, the property shall be consideredabandoned three years after the return, unless the ownerduring that three years takes any action described insubdivisions (1), (2), (3), or (4) of this subsection; and(6) an electronic record of an internet accountinquiry or action, when made via the use of theowner’s unique personal identification information,may establish an indication of the owner’s interest inthe property, provided that the inquiry or action istraceable to the owner and not to a third party andwas not caused by an event within the electronicsystem.(e) Property is payable or distributable for purposesof this chapter notwithstanding the owner’s failureto make demand or present an instrument ordocument otherwise required to obtain payment.§ 1243. CONTENTS OF SAFE DEPOSIT BOX OROTHER SAFEKEEPING DEPOSITORYTangible property held in a safe deposit box or othersafekeeping depository in this state in the ordinarycourse of the holder’s business and proceedsresulting from the sale of the property permitted byother law are presumed abandoned if the propertyremains unclaimed by the owner for more than five years after expiration of the lease or rental periodon the box or other depository.§ 1244. UNCLAIMED DEMUTUALIZATIONPROCEEDS(a) Property distributable in the course of ademutualization, rehabilitation, or relatedreorganization of an insurance company is deemedabandoned two years after the date the property isfirst distributable if, at the time of the firstdistribution, the last known address of the owner onthe books and records of the holder is known to beincorrect, or the distribution or statements arereturned by the post office as undeliverable; and theowner has not:(1) communicated in writing with the holder or itsagent regarding the property; or(2) otherwise communicated with the holderregarding the property as evidenced by amemorandum or other record on file with the holderor its agent.(b) Property distributable in the course of ademutualization, rehabilitation, or relatedreorganization of a mutual insurance company that isnot subject to subsection (a) of this section shall bereportable as otherwise provided by this chapter.(c) Property subject to subsection (a) of this sectionshall be reported and delivered pursuant to thischapter no later than May 1 of the calendar yearfollowing the calendar year that the property isdeemed abandoned.§ 1245. RULES FOR TAKING CUSTODY
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