Abandoned & Unclaimed Property Planning & Compliance

We bring experience, expertise and solutions to a wide range of unclaimed property issues.

At Bailey Cavalieri, we are passionate about delivering abandoned & unclaimed property service offerings to clients that aid them in navigating the complexities of unclaimed property planning, compliance, audit defense and unclaimed property litigation. We take deep personal accountability, both individually and as a team, to deliver quality service to our clients and deliver value in each of our engagements.  We are an outlier in the industry in terms of our willingness to take aggressive stances on behalf of our clients. We never back down in situations when our clients have a good faith basis to assert their legal rights.  If your company is looking for a seasoned and courageous partner in its journey to unclaimed property compliance, look no further than BC.

Download PDF

Highlights of our unclaimed property services include:

Experienced and Practical Solutions

Bailey Cavalieri’s’s experience in handling both simple and complex issues associated with unclaimed property compliance and enforcement is second to none.  Whether the challenges your company faces are related to planning, compliance or enforcement, we will work with you to develop a legal strategy that meets your needs and aligns with your company’s risk tolerance. We have built our reputation in the industry as fierce defenders of our clients’ legal rights and our willingness to challenge the status quo when necessary.  We view the unclaimed property compliance and enforcement process through a lens framed by our clients’ legal rights; therefore, in situations when state enforcement processes or demands impinge upon those rights, we work with our clients to defend.

Exposure Planning and Voluntary Disclosure

Our unclaimed property planning models are designed to minimize exposure through careful state-by-state planning techniques that maximize the application of state law exemptions.  We work with our clients to identify potential areas of exposure based on the client’s business, payment and disbursement models. We work with numerous clients in the gift card and payment card industry and assist them with structuring gift card and payment card programs that have minimal unclaimed property exposure and are compliant with state consumer protection laws at the same time.  We also routinely assist clients with developing more robust policies and procedures associated with unclaimed property compliance to minimize future risk associated with various business models.

If a client has conducted a review of its records and discovered past due property that was not reported, we assist clients with voluntarily reporting unclaimed property liability through voluntary disclosure programs. We have familiarity and experience with each state’s voluntary disclosure process, whether formal or informal.

Audit Defense, Settlement and Litigation

While we recognize that each of the 50 states have laws that give the states authority to conduct unclaimed property audits and enforcement programs, we also recognize that such authority has limits.  If your company receives a notice of audit, we can help you identify the institutional, legal and confidentiality issues that must be addressed in the context of audit demands, including the states’ routine use of contingent-fee auditors  - a compensation model that often strips the auditor of independence.  We assist clients with mapping out audit defense strategies in tune with the clients’ risk tolerance that allow clients to be as cooperative as possible with reasonable audit demands.  We help our clients to evaluate the propriety of voluminous document demands and aim to provide clear lines of demarcation with respect to where the state’s legal authority ends.

Most often, our involvement in the audit process leads to reasonable settlement; however, there may be situations when litigation is necessary. We understand the risks and expense associated with unclaimed property litigation and help our clients weigh the risks and benefits in order to pursue the path that is most beneficial to the client’s needs.  We have experience litigating complex unclaimed property audit disputes in both federal and state court and have participated as amicus or in some other capacity in many of the most important unclaimed property cases over the past 15 years.  We are keenly familiar with how existing federal common law precedent preempts conflicting state laws to the benefit of the holder community and assist our clients in asserting their legal rights through litigation as needed. We are currently involved in landmark unclaimed property litigation in both the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware and the Delaware Court of Chancery.

National Presence

Based in Columbus, Ohio, our unclaimed property practice is anything but local.  We represent clients from coast to coast and provide legal advice and opinions on various aspects of state unclaimed property law compliance.  We track important unclaimed property legislation on a 50-state basis and provide our clients with alerts about law changes that will impact their unclaimed property reporting policies and procedures.  We have experience analyzing Canadian unclaimed property law schemes and work with local counsel in Canada to address issues for our clients as needed.