South Dakota Shortens Dormancy Periods (But Gives Less Notice to Owners)

Last week, the Governor of South Dakota signed House Bill 1270 into law.  This legislation shortens the dormancy period for most property types under South Dakota law from 5 years to 3 years.  Despite the trend toward shortening the dormancy period for travelers' checks, however, the new law leaves the 15 year dormancy period intact for these items.

In addition, while the new law will increase (at least, in the short term) the amount of property collected by the state, the new law reduces the state's obligation to give notice to owners of unclaimed property.  Specifically, the new legislation reduces the number of published notices to owners from two to one, and now only requires that items having a value of $250 or over (up from $50) must be included. 

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