Montana Code 32-7-115. Maintenance of records
32-7-115. Maintenance of records. (1) A licensee shall establish and maintain the books, accounts, and records necessary to enable the department at any time to determine whether the escrow transactions performed by the licensee comply with the provisions of this part. The books, accounts, and records must be maintained in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and good business practice.
Terms Used In Montana Code 32-7-115
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Department: means the department of administration as provided for in Title 2, chapter 15, part 10. See Montana Code 32-7-102
- Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
- Escrow: means any transaction in which one person, for the purpose of effecting the sale, transfer, encumbrance, or lease of real or personal property to another person or for the purpose of making payments under any encumbrance of the property, delivers any written instrument, money, evidence, title to real or personal property, or other thing of value to a third person to be held by that third person until the happening of a specified event or the performance of a prescribed condition, when the instrument, money, evidence, title, or thing of value is to be delivered by the third person to a grantee, grantor, promisee, promisor, obligee, obligor, bailee, or bailor or to any agents or employees pursuant to the written escrow instructions. See Montana Code 32-7-102
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Licensee: means a person holding a valid license under this part as an escrow business. See Montana Code 32-7-102
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(2)A licensee shall establish and maintain the following records concerning general accounts:
(a)a general record reflecting the assets, liabilities, capital, income, and expense of the business, maintained in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;
(b)a cash receipt and disbursement journal; and
(c)a reconciliation of monthly statements to the general record.
(3)The records referred to in subsections (1) and (2) must be reconciled at least once each month with the bank statements reflecting each escrow account.
(4)A licensee shall preserve for at least 3 years after the close of any escrow:
(a)all bank statements reflecting each escrow account and records of monthly reconciliations of the statements to the general record;
(b)all canceled checks drawn on each escrow account;
(c)any additional records reflecting banking transactions regarding each escrow account, including copies of all receipts for funds transferred from other accounts into each escrow account;
(d)all statements of account;
(e)all escrow instructions and amendments to them; and
(f)all additional records pertinent to each escrow transaction.
(5)A licensee shall file annually with the department by a date set by the department by rule a statement of the licensee’s financial condition as of December 31 of the preceding calendar year and its transactions and escrow activities during that preceding calendar year concerning consumers in this state. The financial statement must be reviewed by an independent public accountant every odd-numbered year and must be in a form and contain the information that the department requires.