AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 12 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO ABANDONED OR UNCLAIMED PROPERTY.

This Act makes corrections and changes to Senate Bill No. 13 of the 149th General Assembly (81 Del. Laws, c. 1), which was signed February 2, 2017, as follows: Section 1 ensures holders have sufficient time to comply with Senate Bill No. 13’s due diligence requirements with owners. Section 2 clarifies that the State will indemnify and defend a holder against claims made by a foreign jurisdiction for property paid or delivered to the State Escheator in good faith. Section 3 corrects an internal reference. Section 4 corrects an inconsistency among dates. Sections 5 and 6 correct certain date issues that may arise if the Department of Finance chooses to publish final regulations later than July 1, based upon comments received in May on the proposed regulations published in the April issue of the Register of Regulations. Section 7 allows the State Escheator to waive interest in certain circumstances. This Substitute to Senate Bill No. 79 differs from Senate Bill No. 79 as follows: (1) It makes no change to § 1147(a) of Title 12. (2) It makes changes to §§ 1176 and 1183 of Title 12 (as noted above regarding Sections 5 and 6 of this Act). (3) It makes changes to the State Escheator’s authority to grant waivers of interest under § 1185 of Title 12 (Section 7 of this Act).