New York is one of the most consequential jurisdictions in the United States for unclaimed property compliance. It is home to some of the country’s largest financial institutions, insurance carriers, publicly traded corporations, and transfer agents. It has a dedicated enforcement office with an active audit program. And it operates under one of the older, more complex unclaimed property statutes in the country: the Abandoned Property Law, a framework that has been amended repeatedly over decades and that continues to evolve.
For holders operating in New York or holding property belonging to New York-addressed owners, the stakes of non-compliance are substantial. The Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds (OUF) has consistently expanded its outreach and enforcement posture in recent years, issuing compliance letters to holders who have never filed a report, and converting non-responses into formal audits with meaningful look-back periods.
This article walks through the foundational framework of New York’s Abandoned Property Law, the dormancy periods that apply to the most common property types, the due diligence requirements that trip up even experienced compliance teams, the March 10 filing deadline, the enforcement environment, and the voluntary compliance pathway that remains available to eligible holders. The goal is to give holders and their advisors a clear, accurate reference for navigating New York obligations, and to surface the specific points of failure that drive audit risk.
The New York Abandoned Property Law, Foundational Framework
New York’s unclaimed property framework is codified in the Abandoned Property Law (APL), a standalone statute rather than a provision embedded in a broader commercial code. The APL has been in place in various forms since the mid-twentieth century and has been amended through multiple legislative cycles, most recently with the addition of Section 1319 in November 2022, which brought unclaimed virtual currency within the statute’s scope.
The law requires banks, insurance companies, corporations, utilities, stock transfer agents, paying agents, and a broad range of other organizations to review their records annually and report property that has been dormant for the applicable period to the New York State Comptroller, who serves as custodian of the property until it is claimed by its rightful owner.
Two structural features of the APL are worth understanding before engaging with any of its specific provisions. First, the statute is organized by reporting organization type rather than purely by property type. The dormancy rules and reporting deadlines that apply to a bank differ from those that apply to a general corporation, even for similar underlying property. Holders must identify the section of the APL that applies to their organization and apply the rules specific to that section, not the rules applicable to a different industry.
Second, New York’s APL applies to foreign corporations not authorized to do business in New York State, provided the owners of the unclaimed property have a last known address in New York. Section 1312 of the APL is explicit on this point. Many out-of-state holders are surprised to learn that New York reporting obligations can attach to their property regardless of where the holder is incorporated or operates. The jurisdiction rule that governs unclaimed property follows the Supreme Court’s priority framework established in Texas v. New Jersey (1965): report to the state of the owner’s last known address; if no address is known, report to the state of the holder’s domicile.
A significant administrative development for 2025 is the OUF’s migration to the Kelmar Abandoned Property System (KAPS) for electronic reporting. Beginning July 1, 2025, New York will accept only reports formatted in the NAUPA (National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators) standard file format. Holders using legacy or proprietary reporting formats need to update their submission process before this deadline or risk non-compliant filings.
Dormancy Periods by Property Type, The Reference Table
Dormancy periods under the APL vary by property type and, in some cases, by the category of reporting organization. The following table summarizes the most common property types and their applicable dormancy periods under New York law. Holders should verify the specific section of the APL applicable to their organization, as industry-specific rules may modify these general thresholds.
| Property Type | Dormancy Period | APL Reference | Notes |
| Demand deposits / checking accounts | 3 years | Article II | Inactivity from last owner-generated transaction |
| Savings accounts | 3 years | Article II | |
| Outstanding payroll checks | 3 years | APL Sec. 1315 | Applies to general corporations |
| Accounts payable / vendor checks | 3 years | APL Sec. 1315 | Business-to-business not exempt |
| Accounts receivable credits | 3 years | APL Sec. 1315 | Ongoing business relationship exception may apply |
| Traveler’s checks | 7 years | Article II | Longer dormancy reflects instrument type |
| Money orders | 7 years | Article II | |
| Life insurance proceeds / death benefits | 3 years | Article VII | From date of death or maturity |
| Other insurance proceeds | 3 years | APL Sec. 1316 | Health, property/casualty, annuities |
| Stocks / equity securities | 3 years | Article V | Inactivity plus no owner contact |
| Dividends / distributions | 3 years | Article V | From declared payment date |
| Mutual fund shares | 3 years | Article V | |
| Gift certificates / gift cards | 5 years | APL Sec. 1315 | Post 2021 legislation extended expiration rules |
| Escrow funds | 5 years | Varies | Verify by instrument type |
| Court-ordered settlement funds / class action | 5 years | Varies | Subject to case-specific terms |
| Unclaimed virtual currency | 5 years | APL Sec. 1319 | Effective Nov. 22, 2022; first report due Nov. 10, 2028 |
| Wages / salaries | 3 years | APL Sec. 1315 | Applies after last date of employment or last contact |
New York’s Due Diligence Requirements, Where Most Holders Fall Short
Before escheating property to the state, New York requires holders to make a good-faith effort to reconnect the property with its rightful owner. This requirement, known as due diligence, is mandatory under the APL and must be completed before the final report is filed. It is not optional and it is not satisfied by a single automated email.
The core due diligence requirement for most holders is a first-class mail notice sent to every owner with a valid last known address whose property is expected to appear on the abandoned property report. This notice must be sent at least 90 days before the final report due date. The notice must inform the owner that their property will be reported as abandoned and transferred to the Office of the New York State Comptroller unless they claim it before the report is submitted.
For property valued in excess of $1,000, the requirement escalates. If the owner has not responded to the first-class mailing and the mailing was not returned as undeliverable, the holder must send a second notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 60 days before the report is due. This escalated requirement applies separately to each owner whose aggregate property exceeds the threshold, not to the report as a whole.
Property valued at $20 or less may be reported in the aggregate, and aggregate items do not require individual mailings because the owner’s name does not appear separately on the aggregated report.
Banking organizations face an additional layer. They are required to publish notice in a newspaper for property valued above $50, following state-specific publication requirements. This newspaper publication obligation is frequently overlooked by banks whose compliance teams are focused on the mailing components and may not have a process in place for publication.
Two relief provisions matter for compliance planning. First, due diligence is not required if the holder does not have a valid address for the owner, or if the last known address is outside the United States. Second, certain types of electronic contact can satisfy the written communication requirements under the APL, preventing property from being deemed abandoned. This includes email communication from the entitled owner that matches the registered email address on record with the holder, or a verifiable login by the owner through a website or mobile application maintained by the holder. This electronic activity provision is increasingly relevant as financial institutions move toward digital-first customer engagement models.
The practical failure point for most holders is timing. Due diligence is not something that can be rushed at the end of the compliance cycle. A 90-day minimum window before the March 10 deadline means due diligence mailings for general corporations must be sent no later than December 10 of the preceding year. For holders who have not built this into their annual compliance calendar, December is often already a compressed period, and the temptation to send notices later than required is a consistent source of audit exposure.
The Annual Reporting Deadline, Why March Surprises Holders
For most general corporations operating in New York, the annual abandoned property report and remittance are due on March 10. This deadline covers property that became abandoned during the prior calendar year, meaning property for which the dormancy period expired as of December 31 of the preceding year.
The March 10 date is not universal. New York has different reporting deadlines for different categories of reporting organizations:
- General corporations, including non-financial businesses: March 10.
- Banking organizations: April 10, with some variation depending on property type and instrument.
- Life insurance companies: April 10 for most life insurance proceeds, with specific dates for different policy types tied to a separate calendar of events published by the OUF.
- Utilities: November 10 for utility deposits and refunds (Article IV of the APL).
- Securities holders and transfer agents: April 10 for most property types under Article V.
The reason March surprises holders is that many organizations initially learn about New York’s unclaimed property obligations from accountants or outside counsel who are focused on tax calendar deadlines. The assumption that unclaimed property reporting aligns with the April 15 federal tax deadline is incorrect and has led to late filings with penalties attached.
The March 10 deadline creates a compressed window for general corporations because it sits early in the first quarter, when many finance and compliance teams are also managing year-end close processes, audit preparation, and first-quarter financial reporting. Holders who treat unclaimed property as a back-of-the-line compliance item consistently find March arrives before their process is complete.
Remittance must accompany the report. New York requires payment by electronic funds transfer (EFT), wire, or check submitted simultaneously with the report filing. Securities must be transferred per the OUF’s Security Delivery Instructions. The Verification and Checklist Form (Form AC2709) must also be submitted as part of the complete filing package.
New York does not require holders to file a negative report confirming that they reviewed their records and found nothing reportable. While this reduces the administrative burden for holders with nothing to report in a given year, it also means the OUF has less visibility into which holders have conducted annual reviews and which have simply not engaged with their obligations at all. This asymmetry contributes to the OUF’s outreach activity and, ultimately, to audit selection.
What Holders Commonly Get Wrong in New York
Across the spectrum of compliance failures in New York, several patterns appear with enough regularity to warrant specific attention. These are not obscure edge cases. They are the issues that surface most often in audit examinations and voluntary compliance reviews.
Misapplying the dormancy trigger for deceased owners. Prior to 2022, many holders used the last date of owner-generated activity as the dormancy start date for all accounts, regardless of whether the owner had died. A 2022 regulatory amendment (2 NYCRR Section 126.1) established that when a holder receives notice or indication that an owner is deceased, the holder must attempt to confirm the death within 90 days. If confirmed, dormancy begins on the date of death, not the last activity date. Holders who have not updated their processes to reflect this rule are potentially miscalculating dormancy periods for a significant category of property.
Treating business-to-business transactions as exempt. New York’s APL does not provide a blanket exemption for business-to-business transactions. The ongoing business customer relationship exception is available in limited circumstances, but it requires the holder to demonstrate one of three specific conditions: the customer has used the credit balance, the customer has disclaimed entitlement in writing, or the customer has been made aware of the credit balance and acknowledged it. Holders who routinely write off accounts payable credits without documented evidence of one of these conditions are creating unreported liability that compounds over time.
Incomplete property type coverage. Many organizations file unclaimed property reports that reflect a subset of the property types they actually hold. Payroll checks may be reported while accounts payable credits are overlooked. Securities may be reported while associated dividends are missed. Gift cards may be overlooked entirely because the responsibility sits in a marketing department that has no connection to the finance team managing the report. The OUF’s audit examinations regularly uncover property types that were not reported at all, not just property that was reported late or inaccurately.
Due diligence timing failures. As discussed in Section 3, the 90-day and 60-day notice windows must be counted backward from the report due date, not forward from when the compliance process begins. Holders who start their due diligence process in January for a March 10 deadline have already compressed the 90-day window to fewer than 70 days. This is a technical non-compliance even if the mailing is otherwise correct.
Failure to update reporting formats before the KAPS transition. Effective July 1, 2025, New York accepts only NAUPA-formatted reports through the Kelmar Abandoned Property System. Holders using legacy reporting tools, custom internal formats, or third-party systems that have not been updated to the NAUPA standard risk submitting reports that will not be accepted by the OUF, resulting in a technically unfiled report even if the submission was attempted before the deadline.
Ignoring OUF outreach letters. The OUF has been systematically issuing compliance letters to organizations that conduct business in New York but have no filing history on record. These letters are sometimes treated as routine correspondence and routed to a general mailbox rather than to the compliance or finance team. Failure to respond to an OUF outreach letter does not make the letter go away. It frequently triggers escalation to a formal compliance review or audit initiation.
New York’s Enforcement Posture, What Holders Should Know
New York has historically been among the more active states in unclaimed property enforcement, and that posture has intensified in recent years. The OUF conducts both desk audits and full-scope examinations, with a look-back period that can extend significantly depending on how the audit is initiated.
For audits started after January 1, 2019, the reach-back period for general ledger property types is 10 years plus the applicable dormancy period. This means an audit initiated today can examine general ledger items going back more than a decade, a window that captures multiple business cycles, organizational changes, and potential gaps in prior reporting.
The OUF uses several mechanisms to identify audit targets. Organizations that have filed reports in prior years but whose reported amounts appear inconsistent with their industry, revenue size, or number of employees may be selected for examination. Organizations that have never filed a report at all are a primary target of the OUF’s compliance letter campaign. Organizations that have recently undergone mergers, acquisitions, or name changes may trigger examination because transactions of this type frequently create gaps or discontinuities in unclaimed property reporting history.
Penalties for non-compliance under the APL include interest on past-due amounts and monetary penalties for missing deadlines. New York also has authority to conduct third-party audits using contract audit firms, a practice common in unclaimed property enforcement nationally. Third-party auditors working on behalf of the state are typically compensated on a contingency basis, which creates an incentive structure that holders and their advisors should understand when responding to audit requests.
It is worth noting that the OUF has a stated policy of responding to anonymous inquiries. Holders who are uncertain about their obligations, or who suspect they may have unreported liability but have not yet received any formal communication, can submit questions to the OUF anonymously before making any disclosures. This is a meaningful protection for holders conducting internal reviews who want to understand the landscape before determining their next step.
Voluntary Disclosure for New York, An Option Worth Understanding
New York offers a formal voluntary compliance pathway for eligible holders who have not previously reported or who have identified errors in their reporting history. The program is administered by the OUF’s Voluntary Compliance Unit (VCU) and provides meaningful benefits to holders who qualify and complete the process on the program’s terms.
The primary benefit of voluntary compliance in New York is the waiver of penalties and interest on the reported amounts. For holders with significant unreported liability accumulated over multiple years, this waiver can represent a material reduction in the total amount owed.
To be eligible for New York’s voluntary compliance program, a holder must generally meet the following criteria:
- First-time reporters of unclaimed funds to the NYS Office of Unclaimed Funds.
- Companies that have not been contacted about an audit of unclaimed funds by New York State.
- Prior reporters who are correcting a specific prior mistake may be considered on a case-by-case basis by contacting the VCU directly.
The process begins with the OUF sending an invitation letter to organizations that have no prior filing history on record. Holders who have not received an invitation but believe they may qualify can request one by contacting the VCU with their company name, Federal Employer Identification Number, mailing address, and contact information.
Upon receiving an invitation, the holder completes a self-audit checklist, which serves simultaneously as an initial compliance education tool and, depending on the responses, as an enrollment application for the Self-Directed Compliance Program (SDCP). If the checklist responses indicate the holder is likely holding unclaimed funds, the OUF contacts the holder with next steps.
Once enrolled, the holder has six months to complete their records review and file the required abandoned property reports. A one-time extension of up to 60 days is available, provided the request is submitted at least 30 days before the six-month deadline expires. The reach-back period for voluntary compliance mirrors the audit reach-back: 10 years plus dormancy for general ledger property types.
The critical constraint on voluntary compliance eligibility is timing. Once an organization has been contacted about an audit, it is no longer eligible for the program. The window is only open to holders who act before the state initiates its own process. For organizations that have reason to believe they are under-reported, the voluntary compliance pathway offers substantially better outcomes than waiting for an audit initiation that may be triggered by the OUF’s ongoing outreach campaign.
New York Requires Precision, Not Just Effort
The Abandoned Property Law is not a framework that rewards approximate compliance. New York has specific dormancy periods, specific due diligence timing requirements, specific filing formats, and specific deadlines that vary by reporting organization type. Missing any one of these elements, even while making an honest effort to comply, can result in a technically deficient filing, continued audit exposure, or both.
What makes New York particularly demanding for holders is the combination of structural complexity, active enforcement, and a long audit look-back period. An organization that has been operating without a systematic unclaimed property process for several years is not simply behind on a filing. It may be sitting on a liability that compounds over time and becomes considerably more difficult to address once a formal audit is opened.
The holders who navigate New York’s unclaimed property obligations most effectively are the ones who treat compliance as a year-round process rather than a pre-deadline sprint. Annual records reviews, properly timed due diligence campaigns, complete property type coverage, and current reporting formats are the components of a program that minimizes audit risk and supports the kind of repeatable compliance that regulators expect.
Dunbar is a results-driven unclaimed property services firm with senior leadership that includes former state administrators and practitioners with more than three decades of industry experience. Dunbar’s unclaimed property consulting and advisory services span liability analysis, first-time reporting, voluntary disclosure agreements, process review, and audit defense, with a consultative approach that goes beyond data processing to identify exposure before it becomes a problem. For organizations navigating New York’s requirements or assessing their broader unclaimed property obligations, Dunbar offers the expertise to build a compliant, sustainable program.
