IBA Compliance Connection

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Under the new Illinois unclaimed property law, it appears that our due diligence notices provide the owner with thirty days to respond, even though we can send the notice between sixty days and a year before our filing deadline. Is that correct?

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Yes, the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (Illinois RUUPA) requires property holders to mail out due diligence notices at least sixty days and no more than one year before filing a report with the Illinois Treasurer. However, the law requires that the due diligence notices include text requesting a response from the property owner within “30 days after the date of this notice.” 

However, we note that even if the owner’s response arrives after the thirty-day response period has passed, any response that arrives before the property is reported and remitted to the Illinois Treasurer  should be treated as an indication of interest in the property; such a response would prevent it from being reported as unclaimed property.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-502(b)(1) (The due diligence notice to an apparent owner “must contain a heading that reads substantially as follows: ‘Notice. The State of Illinois requires us to notify you that your property may be transferred to the custody of the State Treasurer if you do not contact us before (insert date that is 30 days after the date of this notice).’”)
  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-501 (“[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 under Section 15-401 . . . .”)
  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-210(b) (“Under this Act, an indication of an apparent owner’s interest in property includes: (1) a record communicated by the apparent owner to the holder or agent of the holder concerning the property or the account in which the property is held; . . .”)
     
  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-210(b) (“Under this Act, an indication of an apparent owner’s interest in property includes: . . . (2) an oral communication by the apparent owner to the holder or agent of the holder concerning the property or the account in which the property is held, if the holder or its agent contemporaneously makes and preserves a record of the fact of the apparent owner’s communication; . . .”)