ASK ADAM: COA – Different Names – is there an issue?

The name on the yellow label indicates a different name from what was on the mail piece. Is this invalid information?

QUESTION
The name on the yellow label differs from the one on the mail piece. Is this invalid information?

APPROACH
Gather more information about the address, the COA, and the source of the address.

POSSIBLE ROOT CAUSE/SOLUTION
The account was for a family member who no longer lives at the address. While the match to a COA record could not be automatically performed by NCOA^Link® or PARS, the Carrier knew the address history and residents and was able to make the match. In this case, the last names should match; only the first names differ between the address and the information on the yellow label.

If the name is completely different (“John Smith” vs “Mary Jones”), then you should do more research – especially if the yellow label indicates the match was not via Carrier Identified processing. More likely, there was a machine error / two pieces of mail got stuck together, resulting in a yellow label being placed on the wrong piece. NOTE: In this case, the information in the ACS™ records will be correct.

EXAMPLES
Example: The account (and name on the piece) is for a family member who passed away. The surviving partner just leaves the account in their name. But when they eventually move, they file an Individual COA rather than a Family COA. From the yellow label and ACS™ record, you can see the different first name that is on the COA record, as well as codes that indicate if the COA was filed as an Individual COA.

Example Piece: from codes on the yellow label, the piece was processed in March of 2025, but the COA was from December of 2023, but required the Carrier to make the match. So, indicates that a match may not occur in NCOA^Link®. BUT, was this really the only piece mailed to this address in well over a year? If not, why wasn’t the address updated from ACS™ records from the prior mailings? In this case, the clue is in the new address on the yellow label – note that there is a “PMB” value. That indicates that the new address is a CMRA. So, not a physical address where a person or business resides. In many industries, there are requirements to maintain the physical address rather than just a mailing address. In those cases/industries, this COA could be rejected and used to initiate a process to contact the recipient to confirm and record their physical and mailing addresses. NOTE: There are multiple types of non-physical addresses. Some cannot be determined from the new addresses alone.