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”, 

“outstanding checks”. 

l’premiums deposi&“, and 

Your first question Inquires as to whether your department 

is authorized to accept the Items so designated under the provisions 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) 

!! 

building; 

shall knowingly keep or receive. into the 

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 terminated 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 payable’ in the absence of actual proof that such person 

was alive at the time or times required by the contract. 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 predidated 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 terminated 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 afflrmative, 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 statements 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 

t 

Article 4.08 

of the Texas Insurance Code; Article .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 

APPROVED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

By: Stanton Stone 

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