Recommended Citation
Anita Ramasastry, State Escheat Statutes and Possible Treatment of Stored Value, Electronic Currency, and Other New Payment Mechanisms, 57 Bus. Law. 475 (2001), https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/faculty-articles/742
Keywords
escheat, unclaimed property, Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, electronic gift certificates, electronic traveler's checks, and stored value cards
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Unclaimed property and escheatment is governed primarily by state statutory schemes. State unclaimed property statues require that after a specified period of time, unclaimed and abandoned property escheats to the states. The owner of the property may request return of the property upon proof of his or her ownership. Although several states have adopted the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act as their state escheatment statute,' there are variations in these state statutes. Nonetheless, all state statutes deal with traveler's checks and money orders; most also address gift certificates. Notably absent in all of the state statutes, with the exception of North Carolina and Arizona, is any explicit reference to electronic gift certificates, electronic traveler's checks, and stored value cards.