SB 188 – Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act
Authored by Sen. Eric Koch (R-Bedford)
Repeals the Unclaimed Property Act and replaces it with the Revised Unclaimed Property Act.
Chamber position: Oppose in part
The latest: The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from interested parties. The chair indicated the legislation would be amended and voted on next week.
The bill is intended to update and recodify the unclaimed property statutes in the manner proposed by the Uniform Laws Commission. This is a commendable objective to make laws across the country consistent. These efforts are complicated, involve a lengthy process and a large number of people dedicated to generating model uniform laws. But the testimony revealed that achieving a wholesale repeal of existing laws and replacing them with a new set requires some work on details.
Indiana Chamber action/commentary: This should not be controversial legislation. While the Indiana Chamber very much supports the effort of updating the unclaimed property laws, we were compelled to raise concerns with this bill which is based on the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. Unfortunately, the bill does not reincorporate a number of reasoned exclusions that exist in current law. Most notably, business-to-business transactions are currently exempt and not subject to the unclaimed property process. We hope this is an inadvertent matter. We are also concerned that the revised act also allows for a 10-year lookback period. Effectively, this means businesses would have to reopen their books to adjust to changes in the laws. We are now working with the author to detail our concerns.
Resource: Bill Waltz at (317) 264-6887 or email: bwaltz@indianachamber.com
