Treasurer seeks new fund, higher reserve to manage planned securities liquidation
Summary
Treasurer Joey Spellberg and Unclaimed Property Director Meaghen Aguirre told a committee LB1074 would fix audit look-back timing and create a separate fund and a higher retained balance (raising the overage transfer threshold from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000) to ensure cash is available to pay claims during a planned liquidation of long-held securities.
Sen. Rita Sanders introduced LB1074 at the request of State Treasurer Joey Spellberg, who testified the bill contains two main changes for Nebraska’s unclaimed-property framework: clarifying when an unclaimed-property audit begins and creating a new cash fund to hold proceeds from a planned liquidation of long-held securities.
"LB 10 74 would make 2 key improvements," Spellberg told the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. He said the audit look-back would begin when the treasurer’s office provides an official notice of an exam, which he said should reduce delays and improve audit accuracy. The bill also would create a separate fund to hold proceeds from a securities liquidation project and increase the maximum that may be held in the unclaimed property trust fund from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 so the office retains sufficient cash to pay claims.
During questions, Spellberg said the unclaimed property system lists about $250,000,000 in claimable assets and that roughly $80,000,000 of those are securities the office plans to reconcile and liquidate over a one- to two-year period. He said most claimants prefer cash and that converting securities to cash would simplify claims processing for the division’s small staff.
Meaghen Aguirre, the division director, explained practical reasons for fixing the look-back to the notice of exam: audits sometimes take years to begin because of nondisclosure negotiations or scope discussions, and the proposed change would prevent the statutory look-back window from shifting forward during those delays. Aguirre and Spellberg said the new fund and raised retained threshold are meant to ensure proceeds remain available to pay claims rather than being swept into the permanent school fund under current transfer timing.
Committee members asked how transfers and interest on invested funds are handled; Aguirre described annual reporting and the transfer process tied to the Nov. 1 reporting deadline and said detailed investment accounting is managed separately. No opponents testified in person on LB1074 in this transcript; the committee closed the hearing without a recorded vote in the transcript.
