Posted on: March 15th, 2017
Bill Protects Utahns’ Property Rights & Helps Safeguard Utahns from Identity Theft
Highlights Need to Tackle Tabled Items in Coming Year
SALT LAKE CITY – March 15, 2017 – Utah Treasurer David Damschen, Senator Lyle Hillyard (R – Logan), and Representative Lowry Snow (R – St. George) today applauded the final passage of SB 175. This legislation protects Utahns’ individual property rights and modernizes Utah’s 1981 unclaimed property law to better fit today’s technology – including requiring businesses and other organizations to encrypt Utahns’ personal information when reporting lost or abandoned property to the State of Utah.
“Replacing our outdated Unclaimed Property statute is a great accomplishment and I commend our legislature for unanimously supporting this effort. That said, there are certain changes in the law related to properties held by the banking and insurance industries that we may still have to make – and we will work on those issues in the coming year,” said Treasurer Damschen. “These areas involve certain prepaid debit card account balances that could become lost – and situations involving the death of an individual with life insurance whose beneficiaries are unaware of the policy and therefore fail to claim it – all of which should be covered by unclaimed property law.”
“For over two years the Uniform Law Commission worked closely with state treasurers, the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, and industry representatives to ensure all affected parties’ interests were carefully considered in this legislation – and then we spent the last months doing the same here in Utah,” added Senator Hillyard. “This legislation goes a long way to protect individual property rights in Utah.”
Highlights of SB 175 include but are not limited to:
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