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#202912 - 06/22/04 07:53 PM Dormant Account ?
Anonymous
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For consideration by Illinois bankers...based upon the following hypothetical example: John Q. Public has five accounts with the bank. He uses four of the accounts regularly, but the fifth account has reached "dormant" status, based upon the bank's defined dormany timeframes. My question is this: Since his other four accounts are active, can we just consider his other account to be active and not send him letters or close the account due to the fact that account #5 is not technically "active"? What are your practices on the matter? We're in Illinois (since dormancy often focuses on state law). Apparently a couple of years ago the state told us that we could consider account #5 in the above hypothetical to be active. I guess we could manually override the status of the account on the system to show as active since his other four are active....

Any thoughts on this matter?

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#202913 - 06/23/04 01:49 PM Re: Dormant Account ?
Tricia Offline
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Smack dab in the middle of IL
We manually change the status of the account in a situation like you describe. As long as they are an 'active' customer (meaning they regularly transaction on one of their accounts), their accounts are too.

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#202914 - 10/25/04 09:20 PM Re: Dormant Account ?
Anonymous
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We simply send out a letter telling them of the law and have them sign and return it saying that they want it kept open

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#202915 - 02/09/05 04:26 PM Re: Dormant Account ?
glickstr Offline
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 55
We will manually change the status on the dormant account to active if there are other active accounts. We do not require the customer to sign something in this case. You might consider adding a comment as to why the override was done just in case you can't recall in the future.

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#202916 - 11/07/05 11:52 PM Re: Dormant Account ?
Anonymous
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Can a dormant account be transfered to a relative or friend

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#723764 - 04/29/07 12:16 AM Re: Dormant Account ? Anonymous
trainer53 Offline
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trainer53
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 85
Under Il statues, if you have an account holder with multiple accounts and one goes dormant you can remove from dormant status if account holder has another active account and they BOTH have the same mailing address (note - mailing address).

No - a dormant account cannot be transferred to friend or relative. The account still owns the money!!

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#724011 - 04/30/07 03:54 PM Re: Dormant Account ? trainer53
tpowers4 Offline
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St. Louis
Trainer53, would be so kind as to point me to that statute?

I handle escheatment for our bank and our understanding was that customer contact vis-a-vis other accounts was not enough to remove dormancy. It only was enough to prevent escheatment.

Our senior management's reasoning is that transaction activity on other accounts constitutes customer contact for the relationship but not activity that would remove the dormant status for the account in question. We would not escheat the account because we still have customer activity on the other accounts, but it would remain dormant until the customer transacted on it.

If there is a statute that says I can re-activate the account, I could put it to good use and reduce the number of accounts I have to monitor.
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#738243 - 05/22/07 09:01 PM Re: Dormant Account ? tpowers4
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trainer53, were you able to supply the statute? I would like to see it as well.
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#740074 - 05/24/07 09:05 PM Re: Dormant Account ? Dave M_TCA
StevenD Offline
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KY
Might try this "Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property"

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilc...Property%20Act.
See 1025/2(4)
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#740124 - 05/24/07 09:55 PM Re: Dormant Account ? StevenD
tpowers4 Offline
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I am familiar with the the section you've cited, but my understanding has always been that it only relieves us of the burden of having to escheat those accounts. Our counsel doesn't read it as allowing us to re-activate them. They indicate that the section allows us to not consider them as abandoned, but the dormancy is due to a lack of activity.
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#740208 - 05/25/07 04:35 AM Re: Dormant Account ? tpowers4
rlcarey Online
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I'm not an Illinios expert, but the definition of dormancy is something that banks define and it is not defined by regulation. State Regulations only define when an account is considered abandoned. You will find that the Illinios statute does not even reference dormancy - except for two mentions of a "dormancy fee" in regard to gift certificates and cards.
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#740356 - 05/25/07 02:43 PM Re: Dormant Account ? rlcarey
tpowers4 Offline
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That has always been my understanding as well.
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#742399 - 05/30/07 05:00 PM Re: Dormant Account ? tpowers4
Bruce Jay Baker Offline
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Effective January 1, 2006, an account is not considered to be "presumed to be abandoned" for purposes of escheating to the state if the owner of the account has:

"Engaged in the following activity regarding other funds or loan accounts with the banking organization:

(1) Increased or decreased the amount of the funds, or deposit, or presented an appropriate record for the crediting of interest or dividends; or

(2) Corresponded in writing with the financial organization concerning the funds or deposit;

(3) Otherwise indicated an interest in the funds or deposit as evidenced by a memorandum on file with the financial organization; or

(i) undertook one or more the above actions described in subsection (a) of this Section regarding any account that appears on a consolidated statement with the inactive account;

(ii) increased or decreased the amount of funds in any other account the owner has with the banking organization; or

(iii) engaged in any other relationship with the banking organization, including payment of any amounts due on a loan.

The foregoing apply so long as the mailing address for the owner in the banking organization's books and records is the same for both the inactive account and for the active account."

765 ILCS 1025/2(a).

Bruce Jay Baker, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Illinois Bankers Association
Visit us at http://www.ilbanker.com

Last edited by Bruce Jay Baker; 05/30/07 05:48 PM.
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#803236 - 08/27/07 05:23 PM Re: Dormant Account ? Bruce Jay Baker
CubDave Offline
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Does Illinois have any regulation against charging a monthly fee when an account goes into dormancy?

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#803267 - 08/27/07 05:40 PM Re: Dormant Account ? CubDave
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#803280 - 08/27/07 05:47 PM Re: Dormant Account ? rlcarey
CubDave Offline
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Thanks Randy - Why can't they write in English? Am I correct to assume that this just means I need to disclose the fee to my customer, and be able to provide documentation to the State of the disclosed fee and the amount of fees that were deducted from the account balance from the time it went into dormancy status until it was escheated to the State?

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#804706 - 08/29/07 02:22 PM Re: Dormant Account ? CubDave
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#1138505 - 03/02/09 08:04 PM Re: Dormant Account ? Bruce Jay Baker
chgogal Offline
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Illinois
Concerning dormant certificates of deposit that reach escheatment status, we send an "interest" notice to the customer every time interest posts to the CD. If the notice is NOT returned due to a bad address, can the assumption be made the customer is "aware" of the account, and as such, we can consider the account as active?
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#1138727 - 03/03/09 01:01 PM Re: Dormant Account ? chgogal
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Galveston, TX
No:

Section 760.15 Presumption of Abandonment
Actions which do not prevent the presumption of abandonment include, but are not limited to, automated clearing house transfers, automatic postings to accounts, computer system conversion dates, non-return of mail, those which are non-owner initiated and those not requiring a direct owner response.
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#1151080 - 03/25/09 04:01 PM Re: Dormant Account ? rlcarey
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I'm looking for some type of procedures for handling dormant certificates of deposit. I've researched all of our CDs and have come up with a list of CDs that are truly dormant. How does everyone proceed from here? How do you document this information going forward so you are not repeating the work next year? So far, this has been a very manual process and I'm looking for any guidance that may make the process easier and more time efficient.

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#1949357 - 08/05/14 08:14 PM Re: Dormant Account - Check Cashing? Anonymous
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We have an account that has had no activity and is up for escheatment, however the customer has cashed a few checks against the account.

Would these check cashings be considered activity as far as escheatment is concerned?

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