Unclaimed Property Audit Risks – AP and AR Essentials

States are targeting companies for unclaimed property audits, self-audits, compliance reviews, and voluntary disclosures. This webinar will cover what risks this poses to a company, and what it means from the perspective of the accounts payable and accounts receivable functions. Additionally, the speakers will address AP and AR accounting practice pitfalls, record retention matters, banking relationship changes, and merger and acquisitions and ERP system changes that tend to complicate compliance and/or audit defense efforts. Accordingly, a discussion around best practices to address these risks as well as current trends in some of the key states including California, Delaware, and Illinois will be discussed. Given the long look-back periods of 13-15 years on average for review and extrapolation potential, organizations must pay close attention to the risk of noncompliance.

Joe Carr
JD – Partner and National Unclaimed Property Practice Leader

With 25 years of combined experience in state and local taxation, financial statement auditing, and operational auditing, Joe has worked with a broad range of the Firms’ largest clients including manufacturing, retail, distribution, financial institutions, investment companies, and business services. He specializes in state and local tax issues with an emphasis on income/franchise taxation and unclaimed property compliance and consulting. Joe heads up the firms National Unclaimed Property practice and has had success in mitigating client escheat exposures in VDA and audit settlements before many state escheat divisions. This success is largely attributable to his deep understanding of accounting principles, transaction flow and unclaimed property law. Having evaluated financial and operational corporate risks, Joe offers clients facing escheat issues valuable accounting experience and a unique perspective in dealing with unclaimed property matters. Mr. Carr has also written various alerts and firm bulletins on unclaimed property matters, including gift card planning and strategies. Prior to joining the Chicago office of BDO USA, LLP, Joe worked with KPMG LLP and Deloitte & Touche LLP in state and local tax and audit divisions respectively. In addition, Joe also managed the Internal Audit Division of a middle market food cooperative.

Ricardo Garcia
West Coast Escheat Leader – Unclaimed Property

Ricardo has more than 16 years of experience advising multinational and domestic companies on unclaimed property matters. Ricardo has provided clients with unclaimed property general consulting, audit defense, and compliance services in many industries including healthcare, manufacturing, entertainment, oil & gas, business services, multi-level marketing, logistics, real estate, and retail. As the firm’s West Coast Unclaimed Property Practice Leader, Ricardo has established professional relationships with many of the states unclaimed property administrators in handling client matters and has successfully negotiated voluntary disclosure agreements on behalf of clients and provided audit representation services. Ricardo manages all of the firm’s voluntary disclosure agreements with the State of Delaware. As part of this ole, he is directly responsible for completing and securing appropriate settlements for over 100 DE VDA clients. Ricardo has significant escheat planning experience and has helped many clients mitigate exposures through intercompany planning techniques and strategies. Through reviews of client records and assistance with escheat matters, Ricardo has developed Global Mapping consulting that assists clients in further reviewing, identifying internal control or accounting weaknesses, and provision of recommended corrective action steps for process improvement. Through these process improvements, Ricardo is able to further assist clients in achieving their operational and financial goals. Ricardo is a frequent presenter at COST, TEI, FEI, CTC, and other accounting and tax organizations. He has presented on numerous BDO and external webinars as well. Prior to joining BDO, Ricardo worked with Ryan, Inc. and True partners Consulting in their unclaimed property consulting practice.

Laura Curtis
Sr. Manager – Unclaimed Property

Laura has more than 10 years of experience in abandoned and unclaimed property (AUP) with a focus on assisting companies with their AUP matters in both public accounting and industry roles. Laura also specializes in utilizing technology to efficiently handle large volumes on data, create process improvements, and automate functions where possible. Laura’s unique experience working not only in AUP, but also indirect tax, federal income tax, and tax planning roles provides her with the skills to understand and navigate a wide variety of tax and ERP systems as well as corporate policies and procedures. As a member of BDO National Unclaimed Property Practice, Laura helps clients with all types of escheatment needs including helping clients defend against audits, voluntary disclosure advice and consulting, developing and improving policies and procedures, assistance with escheat compliance matters, and analyzing large volumes of data. Laura has established relationships with many state administrations and has successfully completed and negotiated audits, voluntary disclosure agreements, and other compliance matters. Prior to joining BDO, Laura worked at the corporate offices of Walgreen Co., where she was responsible for leading their unclaimed property compliance and audit team, as well as various tax technology transformation projects.

Josh Barrett
Director, IOFM

Josh Barrett joined the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM) in 2017 has served as the organization’s director since 2020. His is responsible for management of IOFM’s Membership and Certification, its virtual and in-person events, and its demand generation offerings.

Josh is committed to ensuring that IOFM is the premier provider of training and education for financial operations professionals, working closely with a team of content developers, industry leaders and subject matter experts.

Prior to joining IOFM, Josh spent 20 years working in marketing and advertising with companies including L.L.Bean, Globe Manufacturing, the Maine Office of Tourism and Bentley University.