Four Unclaimed Property Stories Holders Can’t Afford to Miss This Summer

Advisely  |  Summer 2026  |  4-min read

Arizona just overhauled its program. Delaware is sending another wave of VDA letters. North Carolina’s unclaimed property division has a new boss. And a Delaware task force could reshape the most influential escheat regime in the country. Here’s what to know before fall reporting season hits.

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1: DELAWARE

Check Your Mailbox: Round Two Drops August 14

Delaware’s Secretary of State confirmed its 2026 VDA invitation calendar: the first batch went out April 10, and the next round is slated for on or around August 14. If you’ve never dealt with one of these, here’s the short version: under Delaware law, the state can’t launch a new unclaimed property examination unless it first offers you a seat in the VDA program. That makes the invitation letter the starting gun, not a suggestion.

You get 90 days to enroll. Skip it and the file gets handed to the Department of Finance, whose day-to-day work is run by one of Delaware’s third-party audit firms. Count 90 days from an August 14 mailing and you land on November 12—right in the middle of fall reporting crunch.

“The real question isn’t whether you’ll hear from the state. It’s whether the letter reaches the right desk in time.”

The letters go to the CFO by certified mail and increasingly target companies with recent M&A activity, recent IPOs, and fast-growth cloud or AI businesses. If your group includes a Delaware entity, plan for “when,” not “if.”

What To Do Now

▪  Alert your mailroom, CFO, and registered agent for August/September certified mail from the DE Secretary of State.

▪  Quantify exposure first—the VDA-vs-audit call should be driven by data, not panic.

▪  You don’t need an invitation to come forward—but enrollment has trade-offs (including limits on challenging the state’s positions later). Get advice before you sign.

2: ARIZONA

A Whole New Ballgame in the Desert

Arizona hasn’t just tweaked its unclaimed property statute—it’s remodeling the house. Several changes are converging at once, and the combined effect is significant.

Digital assets are officially in play. Under H.B. 2749, virtual currency is presumed abandoned after three years of returned mail or owner inactivity. Holders must deliver the asset in its native form—not liquidated cash—to the state or its qualified custodian within 30 days of reporting. Staking rewards and airdrops that sit unclaimed for three years flow into Arizona’s new Bitcoin & Digital Assets Reserve Fund.

Long-standing exemptions are narrowing. Arizona may be pulling on back several carve-outs that holders have relied on for years. The B2B deferral—which let companies postpone reporting property owed to another business during an ongoing relationship—is among the provisions being tightened. If your compliance program was built around those safe harbors, this is the cycle to re-examine what’s actually in your reportable population.

The program itself is moving. Administration is shifting from the Department of Revenue to the State Treasurer’s office, with companion efforts around locator registration, fee caps, and a more transparent public property database. Your statutory duty doesn’t change—but the portal, remittance instructions, and the person answering the phone might.

What To Do Now

▪  Re-inventory your reportable property—especially B2B credits, vendor balances, and digital assets that were previously excluded.

▪  Confirm where and how to file before November 1. Program transitions are exactly when reports get misrouted.

▪  Due diligence letters for property over $50 must go out at least 120 days before filing. Back-calculate from your deadline now.

3: NORTH CAROLINA

New Leadership Over a Billion-Dollar Program

Maryanne Fitzpatrick is the new head of North Carolina’s Unclaimed Property Division at the Department of State Treasurer, stepping in under Treasurer Brad Briner.

This isn’t a sleepy program. The division has set records four years running—topping $115 million returned in a single fiscal year—while holding over $1 billion. NCCash Match pays qualifying claims up to $5,000 without a single form from the owner, and the Treasurer’s office has even piloted AI to surface matches faster.

Why does leadership matter to holders? Extension requests, voluntary compliance, and due diligence waiver authority all run on administrator discretion. We’ll be watching where the new administration focuses its energy.

4: DELAWARE

A Task Force That Could Rewrite the Rulebook

Delaware’s General Assembly created a new Unclaimed Property Task Force through the FY2027 Bond Bill this month. Read between the lines: escheat revenue is load-bearing in the state’s capital budget, and lawmakers want a hard look at the machinery that produces it.

It includes majority and minority members from both chambers plus the Secretary of State, Secretary of Finance, Controller General, and the Governor’s office. Governor Matt Meyer moved fast, signing Executive Order 26 to require executive-branch members to certify they hold no financial interests tied to the unclaimed property industry.

“Delaware’s unclaimed property laws should be written for the people of Delaware, not for the industry that profits from them.”

— Governor Matt Meyer

Findings are due February 1, 2027. If history is any guide—the 2014 task force led straight to a major statutory overhaul—expect the usual flashpoints back on the table: estimation, lookback periods, contingent-fee auditors, and owner reunification.

QUICK HITS

Also Worth Your Attention

• Ohio’s “claim it or lose it” showdown. H.B. 96 converts long-dormant unclaimed funds into state property—roughly $1.7B, with $600M earmarked for a new Cleveland Browns stadium. A Franklin County magistrate paused the transfer this spring. The constitutional questions here are bigger than football.

• California’s crypto-in-kind law. S.B. 822 added digital assets to the state’s Unclaimed Property Law with a 3-year dormancy and transfer of the actual asset to licensed custodians. “We don’t report crypto” is no longer a policy—it’s a gap.

• Enforcement keeps getting creative. Verified reports, compliance reviews, multistate exams, and false-claims-act suits brought by whistleblowers and AGs keep multiplying the ways a reporting gap comes to light.

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Four Moves to Make Before Fall

• Flag the mail. Brief your CFO, mailroom, and registered agent on Delaware SOS correspondence.

• Recheck your exemptions. B2B deferrals, gift card carve-outs, and utility deposit exclusions are shrinking—verify they still apply everywhere you file.

• Run due diligence early. Owner responses are the cheapest way to shrink a report.

• Quantify before you volunteer. An exposure estimate turns a scramble into a decision.

      How Advisely Can Help

▪  Annual reporting, due diligence, and owner reunification across all jurisdictions.

▪  Audit and VDA defense, including Delaware SOS invitations and third-party exams.

▪  Corporate asset recovery—your company may be an owner, not just a holder.

▪  Got a letter or a question? Reach out at adviselyllc.com.

Informational only—not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Reflects publicly reported developments as of July 2026; confirm current requirements with each jurisdiction before acting.