As used in this chapter:

(1) “Audit Manager” means the Abandoned Property Audit Manager of the Delaware Department of Finance.

(2) “Banking organization” includes any organization, corporation, or association organized and existing under Chapter 7, 15, or 17 of Title 5 or the corresponding provisions of statutes in effect prior to February 12, 1953, or any bank or credit union created under the laws of the United States or any state.

(3) “Business association” means a for profit or nonprofit corporation, joint stock company, investment company, partnership, unincorporated association, joint venture, limited liability company, business trust, trust company, land bank, safe deposit company, safekeeping depository, financial organization, insurance company, federally chartered entity, utility, sole proprietorship, or other business entity.

(4) “Domicile” means as follows:

a. For a corporation, the state of its incorporation.

b. For a business association, other than a corporation, whose formation or organization requires a filing with a state, the state of its filing.

c. For a federally chartered entity, the state of its home office.

(5) “Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.

(6) “Financial organization” means a savings and loan association, building and loan association, savings bank, industrial bank, bank, banking organization, or credit union.

(7) “General Fund” means the General Fund described in § 6102 of Title 29.

(8) “Gift card” means a record that may be used to obtain merchandise, goods, or services at a single retailer of goods or services or an affiliated group of retailers of goods or services.

(9) “Holder” means any person having possession, custody, or control of the property of another person and includes a post office, a depository, a bailee, a trustee, a receiver or other liquidating officer, a fiduciary, a governmental department, institution or agency, a municipal corporation and the fiscal officers thereof, a public utility, service corporation, and every other legal entity incorporated or created under the laws of this State or doing business in this State. For purposes of this chapter, the issuer of any intangible ownership interest in a corporation, whether or not represented by a stock certificate, which is registered on stock transfer or other like books of the issuer or its agent, is a holder of such property. This definition shall be construed as distinguishing the term “holder” of property from the term “owner” of property, as “owner” is defined in this section, and as excluding from the term “holder” any person holding or possessing property by virtue of title or ownership.

(10) “Insurance company” means an association, corporation, or fraternal or mutual-benefit organization, whether or not for profit, engaged in the business of providing life endowments, annuities, or insurance, including accident, burial, casualty, credit-life, contract-performance, dental, disability, fidelity, fire, health, hospitalization, illness, life, malpractice, marine, mortgage, surety, wage-protection, and worker-compensation insurance.

(11) “Loyalty card” means a record given without direct monetary consideration under an award, reward, benefit, loyalty, incentive, rebate, or promotional program that may be used or redeemed only to obtain goods or services or a discount on goods or services. The term does not include a record that may be redeemed for money or otherwise monetized by the issuer.

(12) “Mineral” means gas, oil, coal, oil shale, other gaseous liquid or solid hydrocarbon, cement material, sand and gravel, road material, building stone, chemical raw material, gemstone, fissionable and nonfissionable ores, colloidal and other clay, steam and other geothermal resources, and any other substance defined as a mineral by law of this State other than this chapter.

(13) “Mineral proceeds” means an amount payable for extraction, production, or sale of minerals, or, on the abandonment of the amount, the amount that becomes payable after abandonment. The term includes an amount payable as follows:

a. For the acquisition and retention of a mineral lease, including a bonus, royalty, compensatory royalty, shut-in royalty, minimum royalty, and delay rental.

b. For the extraction, production, or sale of minerals, including a net revenue interest, royalty, overriding royalty, extraction payment, and production payment.

c. Under an agreement or option, including a joint operating agreement, unit agreement, pooling agreement, and farm out agreement.

(14) “Municipal bond” means a bond or evidence of indebtedness issued by a municipality or other political subdivision of a state.

(15) “Nonfreely transferable security” means a security that cannot be delivered to the State Escheator by the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation or a similar custodian of securities providing post-trade clearing and settlement services to financial markets or cannot be delivered because there is no agent to effect transfer. The term includes a worthless security.

(16) “Owner” means a person, or the person’s legal representative when acting on behalf of the person, that has a legal, beneficial, or equitable interest in property subject to this chapter. The term includes all of the following:

a. A depositor, for a deposit.

b. A beneficiary, for a trust other than a deposit in trust.

c. A creditor, claimant, or payee, for other property.

d. The lawful bearer of a record that may be used to obtain money, a reward, or a thing of value.

(17) “Person” means an individual; estate; business association; public corporation; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or other legal entity.

(18) “Property” means tangible property described in § 1134 of this title or a fixed and certain interest in intangible property held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder’s business or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality. The term:

a. Includes all income from or increments to the property.

b. Includes property referred to as or evidenced by any of the following:

1. Money, interest, dividend, a check, draft, or deposit.

2. A credit balance, customer’s overpayment, gift card, stored-value card, security deposit, refund, credit memorandum, unpaid wage, unused ticket for which the issuer has an obligation to provide a refund, pari-mutuel ticket, mineral proceeds, or unidentified remittance.

3. A security, bond, debenture, note, or other evidence of indebtedness.

4. Money deposited to redeem a security, make a distribution, or pay a dividend.

5. An amount due and payable under the terms of an annuity contract or insurance policy.

6. An amount distributable from a trust or custodial fund established under a plan to provide health, welfare, pension, vacation, severance, retirement, death, stock purchase, profit-sharing, employee-savings, supplemental-unemployment insurance, or similar benefits.

c. Does not include any of the following:

1. “Uninvoiced payables,” as defined in this section. Nothing in this section shall be construed to create a business-to-business exemption of any kind regardless of whether a current business relationship exists between the holder and the owner.

2. “Nonescheat capital credits,” as defined in § 909 of Title 26.

3. Layaway accounts issued or maintained by any person in the business of selling tangible personal property at retail.

4. A loyalty card.

(19) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

(20) “Security” means any of the following:

a. A share, participation, debt obligation or similar interest issued by a corporation, business trust, joint stock company, or similar entity.

b. A share or similar equity interest issued by an entity that is registered as an investment company under the federal investment company laws.

c. An interest in a unit investment trust that is so registered.

d. A face-amount certificate issued by a face-amount certificate company that is so registered.

e. An interest in a partnership or limited liability company that is dealt in or traded on securities exchanges or in securities markets.

f. All financial assets maintained in an account, but not the physical securities held in a safe deposit box or other safekeeping repository.

(21) “Sign” means to do 1 of the following with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

a. Execute or adopt a tangible symbol.

b. Attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.

(22) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

(23) “State Escheator” means the person responsible for the administration and enforcement of this chapter, as established by § 1102 of this title and § 363 of Title 30.

(24) “Stored-value card” means a record that evidences a promise for consideration by the holder of the record that the owner of the record will be provided, solely or a combination of, merchandise, services, or cash in the value shown in the record, which is pre-funded and the value of which may be increased by the owner or holder or decreased by redemption.

(25) “Uninvoiced payables” means amounts due “between merchants,” as defined in § 2-104 of Title 6, from a holder who is a buyer to a creditor who is the seller of goods ordered by a holder in the ordinary course of business when the goods were received and accepted by the holder, but which for any reason were never invoiced by the seller. “Uninvoiced payables” include the value of goods received by a holder from a seller from out of balance transactions where the holder’s purchase order for goods and the amount of goods received by the holder do not match. “Uninvoiced payables” include unsolicited goods received by a holder from a seller that fall within § 2505 of Title 6. “Uninvoiced payables” do not include accounts payable, accounts receivable, or any other type of credit or amount due to the creditor, including uncashed checks of any kind whatsoever whether relating to inventory, goods, or services, and all of these types of property are still reportable as unclaimed property.

(26) “Utility” means a person that owns or operates for public use a plant, equipment, real property, franchise, or license for any the following public services:

a. Transmission of communications or information.

b. Production, storage, transmission, sale, delivery, or furnishing of electricity, water, steam, or gas.

c. Provision of sewage and septic services, or trash, garbage, or recycling disposal.

(27) “Worthless security” means a security whose cost of liquidation and delivery would exceed the value of the security on the date a report is due under this chapter.

12 Del. C. 1953, § 1130; 50 Del. Laws, c. 507, § 1; 67 Del. Laws, c. 267, § 3; 70 Del. Laws, c. 298, § 1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 327, § 49; 81 Del. Laws, c. 1, § 2.