Does anyone know what Arkansas state law says about the escheating of uncashed cashiers checks? I was under the impression that cashiers checks had no stale date, so I'm unsure how they could be escheated.

You need to view the Arkansas Unclaimed Property rules. The requirements are five years and they need to be escheated by the end of the month.

JobSecurity, thank you for that information. In reading this website, I can't find anything that specifically discusses cashiers checks. Do you happen to have a link or know the specific document that discusses cashiers checks?

Also, does it matter if your cashiers checks are not actually on your financial institution? For example, if Bank of New York is the bank's routing on on the check?

The Arkansas Code Annotated, Title 18-property, Chapter 28 Unclaimed Property has a lot of the information you are looking for. The Arkansas Unclaimed Property Reporting Booklet will also give you the timeframe for items on the Property Type Codes & Abandonment Periods page.

Not clear on your question about actually on the financial institution. I assume they are your bank's checking account that you write the checks off of? I don't remember this being addressed specifically but I would say that you are the 'holder' of the account, therefore you would be responsible for the escheatment of the checks when they reach the timeframe.

Thank you JobSecurity. Does it matter if, or how at this point, we make contact with the customer? Can we make contact via phone, or if they have other accounts that the customer is using that is active, does that count as contact? If the cashiers check is older than 5 years, does it automatically have to be escheated? Also, do we report the remitter or the payee? I couldn't find any information about that on the auditor's website.

You have missed the window for performing your due diligence in contacting the customer. That is supposed to start 60-120 days before filing your report. If you don’t escheat your cashier’s checks that are dated prior to the 5 year threshold, 6/30/08, examiners will find it. There are sample letters that you are supposed to use when the checks have not been cashed. They require a signature from the customer stating if they cashed the check, are holding it (sometimes they keep it in a safe deposit box), did not receive it, etc. I can’t really offer advice as to whether you should contact them by phone or not. You will report the payee as the owner.

Thank you. So how would you ever know information on the payee unless he or she was also the remitter? Would you send the letter to the payee or the remitter(purchaser)?

I do the best I can with the information that I have. A lot of the cashier’s checks that were purchased get escheated with little information. Some of them I can determine an address to send a letter, but most I can’t and I don’t guess. I have contacted a remitter once on a large check over $5,000, but they were not interested in researching it five years later. If the remitter had been contacted that they still owed funds they would be in the bank getting a copy of the cashier’s check. I would not send a letter to the remitter because that would open a whole can of worms about them wanting the funds back since the check was never cashed. The funds belong to the payee. I am sure the State will make good use of the funds

Thank you again for the information. I appreciate it.