(a) Property is presumed abandoned if it is unclaimed by the apparent owner during the time set forth below for the particular property:

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 36-8-2

  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Apparent owner: means a person whose name appears on the records of a holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Business association: means a corporation, joint stock company, investment company, partnership, unincorporated association, joint venture, limited liability company, business trust, trust company, safe deposit company, financial organization, insurance company, mutual fund, utility, or other business entity consisting of one or more persons, whether or not for profit. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Financial organization: means a savings and loan association, bank, banking organization, or credit union. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Holder: means a person obligated to hold for the account of, or deliver or pay to, the owner property that is subject to this article. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
  • Judgment: includes decrees and orders for the payment of money, or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
  • Money order: includes an express money order and a personal money order, on which the remitter is the purchaser. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Owner: means a person who has a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this article or the person's legal representative. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Person: means an individual, business association, financial organization, estate, trust, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Property: means tangible personal property described in section three of this article or a fixed and certain interest in intangible personal property that is held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business, or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, and all income or increments therefrom. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC
  • Utility: means a person who owns or operates for public use any plant, equipment, real property, franchise, or license for the transmission of communications or the production, storage, transmission, sale, delivery, or furnishing of electricity, water, steam, or gas as defined in §. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
  • Virtual currency: means a digital representation of value, including cryptocurrency, used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value, which does not have legal tender status recognized by the United States. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1

(1) Traveler’s check, 15 years after issuance;

(2) Money order, seven years after issuance;

(3) Stock or other equity interest in a business association or financial organization, including a security entitlement under article eight of the uniform commercial code, five years after the earlier of: (i) The date of the most recent dividend, stock split, or other distribution unclaimed by the apparent owner; or (ii) the date of the second mailing of a statement of account or other notification or communication that was returned as undeliverable or after the holder discontinued mailings, notifications, or communications to the apparent owner;

(4) Debt of a business association or financial organization, other than a bearer bond or an original issue discount bond, three years after the date of the most recent interest payment unclaimed by the apparent owner;

(5) A demand, savings, or time deposit, including a deposit that is automatically renewable, five years after the maturity of the deposit, except a deposit that is automatically renewable is deemed matured on its initial date of maturity unless the apparent owner consented in a record on file with the holder to renewal at or about the time of the renewal;

(6) Money or credits owed to a customer as a result of a retail business transaction, three years after the obligation accrued;

(7) Gift certificate, three years after December 31, of the year in which the certificate was sold, but if redeemable in merchandise only, the amount abandoned is deemed to be 60 percent of the certificate’s face value;

(8) Amount owed by an insurer on a life or endowment insurance policy or an annuity that has matured or terminated, three years after the obligation to pay arose or, in the case of a policy or annuity payable upon proof of death, three years after the insured has attained, or would have attained if living, the limiting age under the mortality table on which the reserve is based;

(9) Property distributable by a business association or financial organization in a course of dissolution, one year after the property becomes distributable;

(10) Property received by a court as proceeds of a class action, and not distributed pursuant to the judgment, one year after the distribution date;

(11) Property held by a court, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, one year after the property becomes distributable;

(12) Wages or other compensation for personal services, one year after the compensation becomes payable;

(13) Deposit or refund owed to a subscriber by a utility, one year after the deposit or refund becomes payable;

(14) Property in an individual retirement account, defined benefit plan, or other account or plan that is qualified for tax deferral under the income tax laws of the United States, three years after the earliest of the date of the distribution or attempted distribution of the property, the date of the required distribution as stated in the plan or trust agreement governing the plan, or the date, if determinable by the holder, specified in the income tax laws of the United States by which distribution of the property must begin in order to avoid a tax penalty;

(15) Warrants for payment issued by the State of West Virginia which have not been presented for payment, within six months of the date of issuance;

(16) All funds held by a fiduciary, including the state Municipal Bond Commission, for the payment of a note, bond, debenture, or other evidence or indebtedness, three years after the principal maturity date, or if such note, bond, debenture, or evidence of indebtedness is called for redemption on an earlier date, then the redemption date, such premium or redemption date to also be applicable to all interest and premium, if any, attributable to such note, bond, debenture, or other evidence of indebtedness;

(17) Any virtual currency held or owing by any banking organization, corporation, custodian, exchange, or other entity engaged in virtual currency business activity, three years after the owner’s last indication of interest in the property; and

(18) All other property, three years after the owner’s right to demand the property or after the obligation to pay or distribute the property arises, whichever first occurs.

(b) At the time that an interest is presumed abandoned under subsection (a) of this section, any other property right accrued or accruing to the owner as a result of the interest, and not previously presumed abandoned, is also presumed abandoned.

(c) Property is unclaimed if, for the applicable period set forth in subsection (a) of this section, the apparent owner has not communicated in writing or by other means reflected in a contemporaneous record prepared by or on behalf of the holder, with the holder concerning the property or the account in which the property is held, and has not otherwise indicated an interest in the property. A communication with an owner by a person other than the holder or its representative who has not in writing identified the property to the owner is not an indication of interest in the property by the owner.

(d) An indication of an owner’s interest in property includes:

(1) The presentment of a check or other instrument of payment of a dividend or other distribution made with respect to an account or underlying stock or other interest in a business association or financial organization or, in the case of a distribution made by electronic or similar means, evidence that the distribution has been received;

(2) Owner-directed activity in the account in which the property is held, including a direction by the owner to increase, decrease, or change the amount or type of property held in the account;

(3) The making of a deposit to or withdrawal from a bank account;

(4) The payment of a premium with respect to a property interest in an insurance policy; but the application of an automatic premium loan provision or other nonforfeiture provision contained in an insurance policy does not prevent a policy from maturing or terminating if the insured has died or the insured or the beneficiary of the policy has otherwise become entitled to the proceeds before the depletion of the cash surrender value of a policy by the application of those provisions; and

(5) For demand, savings and time deposits held by a financial organization, any indication of the owner’s interest in any demand, savings and time deposit held by the financial organization for that owner is an indication of the owner’s interest in all demand, savings, and time deposits held by that financial organization.

(e) Property is payable or distributable for purposes of this article notwithstanding the owner’s failure to make demand or present an instrument or document otherwise required to obtain payment.