Honorable Jesse James Opinion No. C- 279
State Treasurer of Texas
Capitol Station Re: Whether the State Treasurer
Austin, Texas 78711 Is authorized to accept
certain unclaimed funds
under the provis’ions of
Article 4.08 Texas
Dear Mr. James: Insurance Code.
In your recent letter requesting the opinion of this office
regarding the above matter, you informed us that a number of
reports filed by life insurance companies under Article 4.08
of the Texas Insurance Code, known as the Unclaimed Funds
Statute For Life Insurance Companies, have included Items
designated as “stock dividends” “agents checks” “return
premiums”, “ordinary advance”, l’premiums deposi&“, and
“outstanding checks”.
Your first question Inquires as to whether your department
is authorized to accept the Items so designated under the pro-
visions of Article 4.08 of the Texas Insurance Code.
The authority of the State Treasurer to accept funds must
necessarily be predicated upon a corresponding duty to tender
under the law. This concept is expressed in Article 4374 in
the following language :
“All moneys received by the Treasurer shall be
kept In the safes and vaults of the Treasury; and
the Treasurer shall not keep or receive Into the
building, safes or vaults of the Treasury any money,
or the representative of money, belonging to any
individual except in cases expressly provided for by
law; . . . . ”
Article 93 of Vernon’s Penal Code further solemnizes this
directive by placing a penal sanction upon the Treasurer if
he:
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Honorable Jesse James, page 2 (C-279)
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shall knowingly keep or receive. into the
building; safes or vaults of the Treasury, any money ’
or representative thereof belonging to any individual,
except in cases expressly provided for by law,....”
In consequence of the foregoing provision of our statutes
we must approach your question by ascertaining If there is any
express provision authorizing or requiring that the funds in
question be paid to the State Treasurer.
Section 2 of Article 4.08.provides that: “This Article
shall apply to unclaimed funds, as defined in Section 3
hereof, . . . . ”
Section 3 of Article 4.08 defines unclaimed funds as
follows :
“The term ‘unclaimed funds 1 as used in this Article
shall mean and Include all monies held and owing
by any life insurance company doing business in this
state which shall have remained unclaimed and unsaid
for seven years or more after it is established from
the records of such company that such monies became
due and payable under any life or endowment insurance
policy or annuity contract which has matured or ter-
minated A life insurance poli t t db
actual Aroof of the orior deathc~fn~he?n~~~ed ghall
be deemed to be matured and the proceeds thereof shall
be deemed to be ‘due and payable’ within the meaning
of this Article only If such policy Is in force when
the Insured shall have attained the limiting age
under the mortality table on which the reserve is
based. Annuities and other obligations, the payment
of which is conditioned upon the continued life of
any person, shall not be deemed to be ‘
due and pay-
able’ in the absence of actual proof that such person
was alive at the time or times required by the con-
tract. Monies otherwise admittedly due and payable
under any such life or endowment Insurance policy
or annuity contract shall be deemed to be ‘held and
owing’ within the meaning of this Article although the
policy or contract shall not have been surrendered
as required. ” (Emphasis added.)
Since we have previously held in Attorney General’s Opinion
C-200 (December 20, 1963) that Section 13 of Article 4.08
exempts life insurance companies from reporting property which
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Honorable Jesse James, page 3 (C-279)
would have been reportable under other escheat or uncl_aimed
property laws after the effective date of Article 4.08,, your
authorization to receive the funds In question must be predi-
dated upon the duty of the life insurance company to report
and tender such funds under the provisions of Article 4.08.
Following this reasoning, and. referring to the’speclfic
limitations of Section 3 of ‘Article 4.08 quoted above, we hold
that you are authorized to accept funds from life Insurance
companies under the provisions of Article 4.08 only if such
funds became due and payable under any life or endowment
insurance policy or annuity contract which has matured or ter-
minated as provided in Section 3 of said Article 4.08.
With reference to the named items referred to in your
letter, we.are of the opinion that those designated,as: “stock
dividends ” “agents checks” and “ordinary advance”, as we
understand’the use of these’terms cannot be considered to be
within the scope’of Section 3 of Article 4.08. The items
designated as, “return permiums” and “premium deposits” would,
as we understand the use of these terms, be funds due under
terminated policies or contracts and would come within the
scope of Section 3 of Article 4.08;
Those items simply designated as “outstanding checks”
must be further clarified by additional information before it
can be determined whether your office is authorized to accept
them.
Since we have answered a portion of your first question
in the affirmative we will pass to your second question which
is as follows:
“If your reply to question number one is afflrma-
tive, please advise whether the provisions of
Article 4.08 requires that all unclaimed funds held
by life insurance companies for at least seven years
be reported to this office.”
We answer your second question by reference to our state-
ments above and, as a corollary thereto, we hold that some but
not all unclaimed funds held by life insurance companies for at
least seven years are required to be reported to your office.
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Honorable Jesse James, Page 4 (C-25'9)
SUMMARY
The State Treasurer is authorized to accept as
unclaimed funds from life insurance companies only
those funds required to be reported b Article 4.08
of the Texas Insurance Code; Article t .08 of the'
Texas Insurance Code does not require life insurance
companies to report to~the State Treasurer all unclalfied
funds held by such companies for at least seven years.
Very truly yours,
WAGGONER CARR
Attorney General
Assistant
WOS:ml
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
W. V. Geppert, Chalrman
John Reeves
Ed Boldlng
George Black
Jack Goodman
APPROVEDFOR THE ATTORNEYGENERAL
By: Stanton Stone
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