(a) Property is presumed abandoned if it is unclaimed by the apparent owner during the time set forth below for the particular property:

lawyer at desk

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-3

  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Apparent owner: means a person whose name appears on the records of a holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Business association: means a corporation, joint stock company, investment company, partnership, unincorporated association, joint venture, limited liability company, business trust, trust company, safe deposit company, financial organization, insurance company, mutual fund, utility, or other business entity consisting of one or more persons, whether or not for profit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Financial organization: means a savings and loan association, financial services loan company, bank, banking organization, or credit union. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Holder: means a person obligated to hold for the account of, or deliver or pay to, the owner of property that is subject to this part. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Money order: includes an express money order and a personal money order, on which the remitter is the purchaser. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Owner: means a person who has a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this part or the person's legal representative. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Person: means an individual, business association, financial organization, estate, trust, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Property: means tangible property described in § 523A-4 or a fixed and certain interest in intangible property that is held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business, or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, and all income or increments therefrom. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC
(1) Traveler’s check, fifteen years after issuance;
(2) Money order, seven years after issuance;
(3) Stock or other equity interest in a business association or financial organization, including a security entitlement under article 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code “” Investment Securities, five years after the earlier of:

(A) The date of the most recent dividend, stock split, or other distribution unclaimed by the apparent owner; or
(B) The date of the second mailing of a statement of account or other notification or communication that was returned as undeliverable or after the holder discontinued mailings, notifications, or communications to the apparent owner;
(4) Debt of a business association or financial organization, other than a bearer bond or an original issue discount bond, five years after the date of the most recent interest payment unclaimed by the apparent owner;
(5) A demand, savings, or time deposit, including a deposit that is automatically renewable, five years after the earlier of maturity or the date of the last indication by the owner of interest in the property; provided that a deposit that is automatically renewable is deemed matured for purposes of this section upon its initial date of maturity, unless the owner has consented to a renewal at or about the time of the renewal and the consent is in writing or is evidenced by a memorandum or other record on file with the holder;
(6) Money or credits owed to a customer as a result of a retail business transaction, five years after the obligation accrued;
(7) Gift certificate not exempt under section 523A-3.5, five years after December 31 of the year in which the certificate was sold, but if redeemable in merchandise only, the amount abandoned shall be deemed to be one hundred per cent of the certificate’s face value;
(8) Amount owed by an insurer on a life or endowment insurance policy or an annuity that has matured or terminated, five years after the obligation to pay arose or, in the case of a policy or annuity payable upon proof of death, three years after the insured has attained, or would have attained if living, the limiting age under the mortality table on which the reserve is based;
(9) Property distributable by a business association or financial organization in a course of dissolution, one year after the property becomes distributable;
(10) Property received by a court as proceeds of a class action, and not distributed pursuant to the judgment, one year after the distribution date;
(11) Property held by a court, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, one year after the property becomes distributable;
(12) Wages or other compensation for personal services, one year after the compensation becomes payable;
(13) Deposit or refund owed to a subscriber by a utility, one year after the deposit or refund becomes payable;
(14) Property in an individual retirement account, defined benefit plan, or other account or plan that is qualified for tax deferral under the income tax laws of the United States, three years after the earliest of the date of the distribution or attempted distribution of the property, the date of the required distribution as stated in the plan or trust agreement governing the plan, or the date, if determinable by the holder, specified in the income tax laws of the United States by which distribution of the property shall begin to avoid a tax penalty; and
(15) All other property, five years after the owner’s right to demand the property or after the obligation to pay or distribute the property arises, whichever first occurs.
(b) At the time that an interest is presumed abandoned under subsection (a), any other property right accrued or accruing to the owner as a result of the interest, and not previously presumed abandoned, shall also be presumed abandoned.
(c) Property is unclaimed if, for the applicable period set forth in subsection (a), the apparent owner has not communicated in writing or by other means reflected in a contemporaneous record prepared by or on behalf of the holder, with the holder concerning the property or the account in which the property is held, and has not otherwise indicated an interest in the property. A communication with an owner by a person other than the holder or its representative who has not in writing identified the property to the owner shall not be an indication of interest in the property by the owner.
(d) An indication of an owner’s interest in property includes:

(1) The presentment of a check or other instrument of payment of a dividend or other distribution made with respect to an account or underlying stock or other interest in a business association or financial organization or, in the case of a distribution made by electronic or similar means, evidence that the distribution has been received;
(2) Owner-directed activity in the account in which the property is held, including a direction by the owner to increase, decrease, or change the amount or type of property held in the account;
(3) The making of a deposit to or withdrawal from a bank account; and
(4) The payment of a premium with respect to a property interest in an insurance policy; but the application of an automatic premium loan provision or other nonforfeiture provision contained in an insurance policy shall not prevent a policy from maturing or terminating if the insured has died or the insured or the beneficiary of the policy has otherwise become entitled to the proceeds before the depletion of the cash surrender value of a policy by the application of those provisions.
(e) Property shall be payable or distributable for purposes of this part notwithstanding the owner’s failure to make demand or present an instrument or document otherwise required to obtain payment.

  Previous
Next  
 Part I Contents