IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

Before reporting the contents of a safe deposit box to the State Treasurer as abandoned, we send the accountholder a notice. Does that notice have to be sent by certified mail?

—

by

admin

No, certified mail is not required, unless your account agreement includes such a requirement. However, depending on the timing of your notice, you may be required to use first class mail.

The Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act (Act) requires banks to attempt to notify customers before reporting property as abandoned, but it does not require banks to use certified mail. If the notice is not sent at least 120 days before the deadline for reporting the property to the State Treasurer, though, the Act requires banks to send notice at least 60 days before that deadline by first class mail.

Note also that effective January 1, 2018, Public Act 100-0022 repeals the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act and replaces it with the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. While this law makes significant changes to Illinois’ unclaimed property laws, it does not require communications with property owners to be made through certified mail.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act, 765 ILCS 1025/11(e) [Repealed effective 1/1/18] (“Before filing the annual report, the holder of property presumed abandoned under this Act shall communicate with the owner at his last known address if any address is known to the holder, setting forth the provisions hereof necessary to occur in order to prevent abandonment from being presumed. If the holder has not communicated with the owner at his last known address at least 120 days before the deadline for filing the annual report, the holder shall mail, at least 60 days before that deadline, a letter by first class mail to the owner at his last known address unless any address is shown to be inaccurate, setting forth the provisions hereof necessary to prevent abandonment from being presumed.)
  • Public Act 100-0022 (“[T]he holder of property presumed abandoned shall send to the apparent owner notice by first-class United States mail that complies with Section 15-502 in a format acceptable to the administrator not more than one year nor less than 60 days before filing the report . . . .”)