Abandoned Property Holder Information

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS ABANDONED PROPERTY REPORT FORM AP-1

Delivery of funds and securities to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Electronic Transfer Funds (ETF) instructions.

NOTE! Holders now have the ability to upload NAUPA-formatted files, receive e-mail notification when reporting packets are available, or update their contact infomation. For instructions, please click here.

NATURE OF ABANDONED PROPERTY

The Massachusetts Abandoned Property Law ( M.G.L.c. 200A ), requires business entities and others to review their records each year to determine whether they are in the possession of any unclaimed funds, securities or other property which is reportable under Chapter 200A and to make an annual report of their findings.

WHO MUST REPORT

Banking and Financial Organizations including any bank, trust company, savings bank, safe deposit company, private banker, savings and loan association, credit union, and cooperative bank. Both state and federally chartered institutions are required to report.

All Business Associations, wherever located, domiciled or incorporated, such as a corporation, joint stock company, business trust, partnership, cooperative or other association for business purposes of two or more individuals, whether or not for profit, are required to report.

Other Legal Entities including governments, political subdivisions, public authorities, public corporations, estates, trusts or any other legal or commercial entity, including nonprofit organizations are required to report.

All Holders: All of the foregoing must report annually to indicate whether they have reportable items for that year. A negative report is required if no abandoned property is being held.

All holders including business associations, banking and financial organizations and other legal entities are responsible for filing reports on behalf of their branches, divisions or other affiliated entities.

The Abandoned Property Law provides that holders who fail to comply with the law may be audited and the costs of examination shall be paid by the holder. Additionally, holders are subject to a 12% interest charge (or such interest as prescribed by Title 25, Section 6621 of the U.S. Code) on all property not reported or delivered as required by the law (including property required to be reported under the prior law).

NOTICE TO PROPERTY OWNERS
(DUE DILIGENCE)

On or before September 1, all holders must mail to the last known address of owners of abandoned property, with a value of $100.00 or more, a notification of the process necessary to rebut the presumption of abandonment. (Life Insurance Companies shall mail this notice on or before March 1).

WHEN TO FILE

All Holders (except Life Insurance Companies): Reports (consisting of the completed AP-1 form and magnetic tape or diskette) and property remittance are due no later than November 1 of each year. Reports must include all property that has gone unclaimed for the designated abandonment period as of the preceding June 30.

The state will publish the names of the owner(s) not later than the following March 1st. (Life insurance September 1)

Life Insurers: Life insurance companies must report by May 1 of each year any property that has gone unclaimed for three years or more as of the preceding December 31. The state publication of owner names takes place no later than the following September 1st.

Early Reporting Permitted in Some Cases: Any person who has possession of cash property which will become reportable in the future, may, with the prior written approval of the Treasurer, report and deliver such property prior to the date required for reporting. 

WHAT TO REPORT

General: Any debt or obligation which has gone unpaid or security that has remained undelivered for three or more years after the date the owner should have received it or was entitled to claim it. Corporations and business associations must also report and deliver all underlying share certificates where the owner for three years has failed to cash a dividend. Please refer to the checklist on Form AP-1 for more specific examples of the types of property, which are reportable. All such property that you owe to a Massachusetts resident or corporation must be reported. If you are a Massachusetts corporation or a resident of Massachusetts, you must also report all property for which you have no last known address of the owner, and all property where the last known address is a foreign country. (U.S. Supreme Court ,Texas v. New Jersey , 379, U.S. 674, 1965).

Note exceptions: By Federal Law, travelers checks, money orders and similar instruments are reported to state of issuance regardless of corporate domicile, unless the state issuance has no applicable law.

HOW TO REPORT

Use the following item-by-item instructions to complete the AP-1 Form. You may download the AP-1 Form in PDF format.
Please note: form must be printed on Legal size (8-1/2" x 14") paper.

Verification and Checklist Form AP-1.

Complete and mail the form along with your magnetic tape or diskette and your remittances by November 1 (May 1, if you are a life insurer). Make checks payable to The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Send check, completed AP-1 form and your magnetic tape or diskette to the address at the bottom of this page.

ABANDONED PROPERTY HOLDER NUMBER: This is the number assigned to each holder by the Abandoned Property Division. Leave it blank if you are unsure of the number.

FEDERAL TAX I.D. NUMBER: This is your Federal Tax Identification number.

HOLDER: Enter the name and address of the reporting holder of abandoned property.

CONTACT PERSON: Insert the name of the person most familiar with the details of the report. The State Treasurer's Officer or property owner will contact this person should any questions arise concerning the report of property remitted.

TELEPHONE NUMBER: Insert the contact person's telephone number. FAX NUMBER: Enter current company fax number.

ADDRESS: Insert the contact person's mailing address, if different from the holder's address.

PREVIOUS HOLDER: If you are not the original holder of any of the property listed on the report, enter the name of all prior holders and the date(s) that the property changed hands. If your name has changed during the time you held any of the property listed on the report list the prior name(s) and date(s) of change. Attach a separate sheet if necessary.

BUSINESS ACTIVITY: Please describe your primary business activity.

REPORT YEAR: Enter the year of the report.

CHECKLIST: Examine your books and records to determine whether you have held any of the types of property listed on the checklist for three years or more. (Note: you are a "Holder" of abandoned property even if you have taken it into income at some point in the past). Check "Yes" or "No" by each listed category. If you check "Yes" by any category you must report on a magnetic tape or diskette all items of that type which you may have held for three years or longer.

REPORT TOTALS: A breakdown of all funds reported must be filled in, including aggregate (no owner name, address unknown or balances less than $100.00) and owner total (all accounts where an owner name and address is reported regardless of the balance). If you are reporting shares of stock or mutual fund shares include the total number of shares.

VERIFICATION: An authorized individual must sign the report under oath. If the report is made by a partnership, it must be signed by one of the partners; if made by an non-incorporated association or by a private corporation, it must be signed by an officer; if made by a public corporation it must be signed by its chief fiscal officer. Note that this signature must be notarized.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The following specifications are general requirements for tape and diskette reporting. A completed AP-1 Form must be submitted along with the report, regardless of the filing medium.

Magnetic Tape

• Cartridge: IBM 3480 type cartridges, no compression
• Reels: Nine-track magnetic tape, density of 1600 or 6250 BPI
• Data Format: EBCDIC or ASCII
• 577 bytes per record
• 14 records per block or 8078 bytes per block
• All numeric fields must be right-justified, zero filled
• All alphanumeric fields must be left-justified, blank filled
• No packed numeric fields

Diskette

• Diskettes must be high-density (1.2MB or 1.44MB) and IBM PC/AT compatible.
• The file must be in ASCII format with no imbedded control characters or hexadecimal values.
• Each record must be separated by a Carriage-Return and Line-Feed (CR/LF).
• All numeric fields must be right justified, zero filled.
• The report should be the only file on the diskette and must be in the root directory. (See section on submitting multiple holder reports on a single diskette.)

  NOTE: All tapes and diskettes must include an external label with the preparer’s name and telephone number. A hard copy of the report must be sent to assist us in interpreting the data and correcting minor errors.

Record Types and Descriptions

The NAUPA standard for reporting abandoned property is based on four record types:

• HOLDER: Contains information about the holder responsible for the report
• PROPERTY: Contains information about each property and the primary owner of each property
• PROPADD: Contains information about additional owners, if any, of same properties
• SUMINFO: contains summary information about each holder report

All four record types are 577 bytes each. The first byte of each record must contain a TR-CODE that denotes the type of record, and the subsequent 576 bytes are used to store the fields for that particular record. The TR-CODE, always a number between 1 and 4, indicates the type of record as follows:

If TR-CODE = 1, then it is a HOLDER record
If TR-CODE = 2, then it is a PROPERTY record
If TR-CODE = 3, then it is a PROPADD record
If TR-CODE = 4, then it is a SUMINFO record

REMEMBER: All four record types must be 577 bytes in length. The first byte of each record will contain a TR-CODE as explained above. The remaining 576 bytes contain the various fields in the data set. All fields are a fixed length. Since all records MUST be 577 bytes, excess space in a field or record must contain filler (blank fill if alpha field, zero fill if numeric field). This is the template upon which all records must be based.

Refer to the description &comments column in the record layout for each record type, where the specifications will state whether a field is mandatory, required, or optional. If the field is marked "M" for "mandatory" , data must be supplied or the report could be rejected. If the field is marked "R" for "required" , information must be provided if known. Required information is usually required by law or regulation. If the field is marked "O" for "optional" , the information is desired.

Multiple Holder Reports

Since the PROPERTY, PROPADD and SUMINFO records contain no fields linking them with a specific holder record, using a single magnetic tape or diskette for multiple holder reports requires careful handling. If multiple holder reports are put on a single tape or diskette, holders MUST follow the instructions below:

Magnetic Tape (Reel or Cartridge)

The HOLDER record for the first holder report must be the first record on the tape or cartridge, and the SUMINFO record must be the last record in that holder report. ALL PROPERTY and PROPADD records located between the HOLDER and SUMINFO records will be assumed to belong to that HOLDER record.
The HOLDER record for the second holder report should be the first record after the SUMINFO record for the previous holder report. The same criteria will hold true for the next holder report, and so on.

Diskette

Multiple holder reports may be included on a single diskette, using one of the options listed.
OPTION 1: Each holder report is located in a separate file in the root directory.
OPTION 2: All holder reports are in the same file in the root directory. The holder report must be the first record in the file, and the SUMINFO record must be the last record in that holder report. All PROPERTY and PROPADD records located between the HOLDER and SUMINFO records will be assumed to belong to the HOLDER record. The HOLDER record for the second holder report should be the first record after the SUMINFO record for the previous holder report. The same criteria will hold true for the next holder report, and so on.

ADDITIONAL FORMS OR DISKETTE PACKAGE REQUESTS

If you need additional AP-1 forms, you may click here , photocopy a blank form, or write the Treasurer's Office for extra forms. If you wish to request a preformatted diskette package, at no cost to the holder, please contact the Treasurer's office. You may also download it. Copies of the Abandoned Property Law are available from the Treasurer's Office by writing or calling. You may also access Abandoned Property Law on-line.

View the new reporting standard (Requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the latest version and then install the free Adobe® Reader® software for best results).

Visit NAUPA , the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, to learn about national requirements for holders.