Unclaimed property compliance is a year-round job. Preparations must be made monthly in order to stay compliant. Below are the top 5 ways you can stay ahead of your unclaimed property obligations, before they turn into penalties.
1. Review procedures and document them: A lack of good audit trails and procedure documentation is commonplace in the world of unclaimed property. This adds disorganization to your compliance process and exposes your business to risk.
2. Use an automation tool: If you are trying to manage this manually, consider a web-based automation tool with compliance intelligence and comprehensive audit tracking capabilities. If you already have an automation tool in place, now is a great time to review those areas where manual work is still impacting your ability to effectively and efficiently manage the process. The less manual your process is, the better it is for you and your business.
3. Meet summer compliance deadlines: Several states have reports or due diligence requirements due throughout the summer months. Prepare your business to meet these deadlines.
4. Take inventory of dormant property: So many companies think unclaimed property simply takes the form of uncashed checks. The state statutes are much more comprehensive. Now is a good time to do your homework, review the types of properties that your organization could be holding and make sure you are reporting all property types.
5. Perform a cost benefit analysis: If you are managing this work internally, what is the cost? Would it make sense to consider unclaimed property automation software? Perhaps software could be a cost-effective way to maintain compliance.
Take Action
Get in touch with a Sovos unclaimed property expert to learn more about managing your unclaimed property compliance processes.
