(1)  Each escrow agent shall maintain in its main office sufficient books, accounts, and records for the department to determine at any time the escrow agent’s financial condition, what duties and responsibilities the escrow agent has undertaken to perform and whether it is properly performing all such duties, and any other information considered necessary to determine whether the escrow agent is operating in a safe, competent, and lawful manner. The books, accounts, and records shall be maintained in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and good business practice.

Terms Used In Utah Code 7-22-106

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • control: means the power, directly or indirectly, or through or in concert with one or more persons, to:
(a) direct or exercise a controlling influence over:
(i) the management or policies of a financial institution; or
(ii) the election of a majority of the directors or trustees of an institution; or
(b) vote 25% or more of any class of voting securities of a financial institution. See Utah Code 7-1-103
  • Department: means the Department of Financial Institutions. See Utah Code 7-1-103
  • Escrow: means an agreement, express or implied, that provides for one or more parties to deliver or entrust money, a certificate of deposit, a security, a negotiable instrument, a deed, or other property or asset to another person to be held, paid, or delivered in accordance with terms and conditions prescribed in the agreement. See Utah Code 7-22-101
  • Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
  • Escrow agent: means a person that provides or offers to provide escrow services to the public. See Utah Code 7-22-101
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
    • (2)  For each individual escrow account, the escrow agent shall maintain the escrow agreement and all amendments, all instructions affecting the agreement, all related correspondence, and an individual ledger reflecting all activity pertinent to that account.

    (3)  Each escrow agent shall continuously maintain the following general accounts:

    (a)  a general ledger reflecting assets, liabilities, income, expense, and equity accounts;

    (b)  an escrow liability control ledger for all escrow accounts;

    (c)  a cash receipts and disbursements journal; and

    (d)  copies of all receipts and disbursements used as a medium of posting to individual escrow accounts.

    (4)  The records referred to in this section shall be reconciled at least monthly.

    (5)  All records pertaining to individual escrow accounts in Subsection (2) shall be maintained by the escrow agent for six years following the close of each account. All records relating to general accounts required in Subsection (3) shall be maintained for six years after the end of the fiscal year to which they relate.

    Enacted by Chapter 133, 1991 General Session

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