Why Has Coogan Changed?

The reasons Coogan has been changed in California are as follows:

• A small percentage of stage parents did not open Coogan Accounts for their working children, and this Unclaimed Coogan Money was in danger of being sent to the Unclaimed Property Accounts maintained by the State of California whose record of tracking down the owners of unclaimed money is spotty at best.
• Misinformation regarding Coogan Accounts became widespread in the Entertainment Industry, as Managers, Agents and Casting Directors, in an effort to make their lives easier, began telling Rookie Parents that Coogan Accounts had to be opened in advance of employment. The 2000 Coogan Law gave new show business families Ten Days to open Coogan Accounts, yet despite this clear language a group of people who thought they knew best continued to spread this misinformation. The consequences were damaging, to say the least.
• One financial institution, Wells Fargo, went out of its way to accommodate Coogan applicants who, unaware that they had been misinformed, rushed to open these accounts, and Wells Fargo now holds more than 10,000 dormant Coogan Accounts with NO money on deposit, and several thousand more accounts with less than five dollars on deposit. The cost of administering these unused Coogan Accounts is astronomical.
• Well-meaning Parents, oblivious to the cost of administering Trust Accounts, began spreading the word that kids without Coogan Accounts could not get an Agent, and could not even audition for that crucial "first role" without a Coogan Account, and this misinformation took on a life of its own despite the best efforts of Official Sources.
• The rise of "Management Consultants" and firms dedicated to separating a well-meaning Parent from their money, began selling a concept that had no basis in reality, namely that every kid had a realistic chance of getting into Show Business. These so-called 'experts' sent thousands of families to banks and to Work Permit offices throughout California (1,800 work permit applicants per month at the Van Nuys office alone!) and nearly all of these hopeful kids never got an agent, let alone a paying job. Again, the administrative costs were astronomical.
• In four years of applying the 2000 Coogan Rules the studios and payroll companies found that they were holding more than a million dollars in Unclaimed Coogan money, and despite their best efforts, the kids who had earned that Trust Money had, for all intents and purposes, simply disappeared.
• The very process of Court Approvals proved to be very tedious, and months could pass before a Court Hearing to approve Minor's contracts, and some parents grew increasingly impatient with the delays that prevented their children's Coogan money from being deposited into waiting accounts. Convinced that there was some dark motive at work (the interest on "the float," for example) several Parents began agitating for changes, although it was rare indeed for any of these Parents to ask for help from Official Sources at the theatrical unions and the Department of Labor which has strict rules regarding timely payments.

So, the rules governing Work Permits and Coogan Accounts in California had to change, and now they have. We urge everyone to come back to this site on a regular basis to stay informed about the implementation of these new Coogan and Work Permit rules, and we also ask for suggestions as to how best to protect the interests of the working children who are, after all is said and done, the reason these Laws came into being in the first instance.