D. 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

Sec. 4. 33 MRSA §1953, sub-§4, ķE is enacted to read:

E.__When the holder has sent a document by mail to the owner at the last known address related to the property, the fact that the document was not returned to the holder as undeliverable.

Sec. 5. 33 MRSA §1956, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 508, Pt. A, §2, and affected by §3, is amended to read:

§1956. Dormancy charge

A holder may deduct from property presumed abandoned a charge imposed by reason of the owner's failure to claim the property within a specified time only if there is a valid and enforceable written contract between the holder and the owner under which the holder may impose the charge and the holder regularly imposes the charge, which is not regularly reversed or otherwise canceled. The amount of the deduction is limited to an amount that is not unconscionable. Nothing in this section prevents the holder from deducting fees or charges not related to the owner's failure to claim the property within a specified period of time when such fees or charges__are deducted from the property before the date the property is presumed abandoned.

SUMMARY

This bill amends the State's Uniform Unclaimed Property Act as it applies to automatically renewable deposit accounts. The bill also clarifies that deposit accounts that are IRAs or part of benefit plans are deemed abandoned according to the rules specifically related to IRAs benefit plans. In addition, the bill clarifies that fees properly assessed before the date of abandonment are not required to be refunded upon escheat to the State.