NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9116
SPONSOR: Simanowitz (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the general business law, in relation
to the sale of abandoned property location services; and to amend the
abandoned property law, in relation to restrictions on agreements to
locate abandoned property
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this legislation is to clarify language relating to the
type of abandoned property that is subject to abandoned property
location services. Specifically, abandoned property delivered to the
state of New York and held by the State Comptroller. This corrects the
problems that arise when the finder and claimant are located out of
state.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Subdivision 2 of Section 393-e of the General Business
Law to provide that any person, corporation, association, partnership or
other entity which sells or offers to sell any abandoned property
location services for abandoned property delivered to the state of New
York and held by the State Comptroller shall, in every solicitation and
agreement for such services, provide to the purchaser of such location
services the following notice in a clear and conspicuous manner, and in
at least twelve-point boldface type prior to the time of sale:
"Abandoned funds held by the State can be obtained directly from the
Office of the State Comptroller by the owner of such funds without
paying a fee. These funds are held indefinitely by the Office of the
State Comptroller. For more information, contact the Office of the State
Comptroller at (insert the current telephone number established by the
Office of the State Comptroller for receiving inquiries from consumers
regarding unclaimed funds) or (insert the current address of the website
of the Office of the State Comptroller)."
Section 2 amends Subdivision 2 of Section 1416 of the Abandoned Property
Law providing that the provisions of such section shall apply to any
person, corporation, association, partnership or other entity which
sells or offers to sell abandoned property location services for aban-
doned property delivered to the state and held by the state comptroller;
provided, however, that this section shall not apply to a client's
agreement with an attorney or accountant where the services in question
can only be performed by an attorney or accountant; or there is a pre-
existing relationship between the attorney or accountant and the client;
or the agreement results from an effort initiated by the client to
engage the attorney or accountant.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, the General Business Law and the Abandoned Property Law
require that any person, corporation, association, partnership or other
entity which sells or offers to sell in this state any abandoned proper-
ty location services (a/k/a a finder) shall, in every solicitation and
agreement for such services, provide to the purchaser (a/k/a owner of
the funds) notice that abandoned funds held by the state can be obtained
directly from the Office of the State Comptroller by the owner of such
funds without paying a fee.
This proposal clarifies language relating to location services provided
by finders. The current statutory language is ambiguous and could be
interpreted to exempt abandoned property location services agreements
from the provisions of this statute when both the finder and the
finder's client are not located in the state of New York. This proposal
corrects the problem and makes it clear that this statute applies when
the finder and claimant are located outside of the state of New York.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE:
This bill has no State fiscal impact.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
