Outsourced Unclaimed Property Services

Owings Mills, Md. — Chesapeake System Solutions Inc., an Owings Mills, Md., provider of integrated financial governance, risk and compliance software solutions, reports that it is offering outsourced unclaimed property compliance services to assist firms in mitigating the risk of noncompliance with state laws. This new service leverages Chesapeake’s expertise in developing and licensing the premier unclaimed property management application on the market today—Chesapeake’s Unclaimed Property Compliance System (UPCS)—as well as providing a hosted version of its UPCS solution for a number of years. Currently, more than 800 companies rely on UPCS to manage their unclaimed property function in strict compliance with the diverse rules of all 54 reporting jurisdictions.

In the current economic environment, states and territories are increasing their focus on regulatory compliance. Thus, government enforcement via audits and other monitoring activities is on the rise. Firms are finding that failure to be in compliance can be costly, especially since no statute of limitation applies to unreported property. The civil penalties, criminal fines and provisions established by the Uniformed Unclaimed Property Act can be substantial for firms who fail to report or report inaccurately.

Virtually every organization must address the issue of unclaimed property. Property encompasses all types of financial instruments: uncashed checks of every kind (payroll, security deposit, vendor payments); estate proceeds; safe deposit box contents; dormant bank accounts; insurance policy payments; stock shares and dividends; mutual fund earnings; etc. Yet, compliance is difficult due to jurisdictions' wide-ranging regulations for dormancy periods, due diligence requirements, reporting and payment. It is a labor-intensive process for a firm to stay current with regulatory changes and to fulfill their many requirements.

Chesapeake’s UPCS outsourcing services include the following:
•    Comprehensive analysis of the client’s current policies and procedures for reporting unclaimed property
•    Assistance with the identification of an organization’s sources of unclaimed property
•    Development of an unclaimed property reporting guide tailored to the organization
•    Production of all due-diligence letters
•    Delivery of signature-ready reports for all 54 jurisdictions

•    Production of summary and detail reports specifying all unclaimed property reported
•    Provision of tools to view and print Chesapeake-produced reports
•    Online access to unclaimed property information for inquiry purposes

Source: Chesapeake System Solutions Inc.