§ 1501

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) “Apparent owner” means the person who appears from the records of the holder to be entitled to property held by the holder.

(b) “Banking organization” means any national or state bank, trust company, banking company, land bank, savings bank, safe-deposit company, private banker, or any similar organization.

(c) “Business association” means any private corporation, joint stock company, business trust, partnership, or any association for business purposes of two or more individuals, whether or not for profit, including, but not by way of limitation, a banking organization, financial organization, life insurance corporation, and utility.

(d) “Digital financial asset” has the same meaning as in subdivision (g) of Section 3102 of the Financial Code.

(e) “Employee benefit plan distribution” means any money, life insurance, endowment or annuity policy or proceeds thereof, securities or other intangible property, or any tangible property, distributable to a participant, former participant, or the beneficiary or estate or heirs of a participant or former participant or beneficiary, from a trust or custodial fund established under a plan to provide health and welfare, pension, vacation, severance, retirement benefit, death benefit, stock purchase, profit sharing, employee savings, supplemental unemployment insurance benefits or similar benefits, or which is established under a plan by a business association functioning as or in conjunction with a labor union that receives for distribution residuals on behalf of employees working under collective-bargaining agreements.

(f) “Financial organization” means any federal or state savings and loan association, building and loan association, credit union, investment company, or any similar organization.

(g) “Holder” means any person in possession of property subject to this chapter belonging to another, or who is trustee in case of a trust, or is indebted to another on an obligation subject to this chapter.

(h) “Life insurance corporation” means any association or corporation transacting the business of insurance on the lives of persons or insurance appertaining thereto, including, but not by way of limitation, endowments, and annuities.

(i) “Owner” means a depositor in case of a deposit, a beneficiary in case of a trust, or creditor, claimant, or payee in case of other choses in action, or any person having a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this chapter, or their legal representative.

(j) “Person” means any individual, business association, government or governmental subdivision or agency, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity, whether that person is acting in their own right or in a representative or fiduciary capacity.

(k) “Private key” means a unique element of cryptographic data used for signing transactions on a blockchain that is known to the owner of the element.

(l) “Residuals” means payments pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement of additional compensation for domestic and foreign uses of recorded materials.

(Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 660, Sec. 2. (SB 822) Effective January 1, 2026.)