You MUST have a record!

[Ghel]

A customer came in to the bank this morning with an account document, waved it in my face, and said, "What happened to this account?" <sigh>

I looked at the document, which was for an IRA opened in 1984. 30 years ago. It's possible the customer still had an IRA with us, perhaps under a different account number, so I looked it up. Checking, savings, safe deposit box, yes. But no IRA.

Me: You don't currently have an IRA with us. You must have closed the account, but I can't see when, since we only keep records of closed accounts for 6 years.
SC: There must be a record somewhere!
Me: No, we only keep them 6 years.
SC: You have to have a record!
Me: <mental sigh> If you'd like, I can check our records of closed accounts in the basement, but we only keep those records for 6 years. So if it was before that, I won't find anything.
SC: Well, I've got all day!
Me: Ok, I'll check.

Surprisingly, the customer left at that point. I went to the basement to check the closed IRA files, and unsurprisingly, I found nothing under his name. He was surprisingly cordial when I called him to tell him that he must have closed the account more than 6 years ago.

[taxguykarl]

Any chance that this became unclaimed property? IANAL but done accounts with no activity for a certain period of time get ceded to the state?

[icmedia]

The unclaimed funds are a pain in the rear to collect;

I had a savings account as a child, that my mother opened to teach me about money and to save regularly. After 2 cross-country moves, the account was forgotten, and I recently (28 years later) found the funds (around $100) listed on my state's "unclaimed funds" website. Great, right? Not so fast-to prove it's mine, they want a utility bill bearing my name and the address on file...

From when I was 6 years old.

They won't take anything else to prove it's me, without some official proof-of-address. Ugh.

[Argabarga]

IANAL either, but, the state (or commonwealth in my case :P) sent me a letter saying, in effect:

"This apparently was your money in this old account that was closed, but, you never collected it since the check the bank made out to you when it closed wasn't cashed. If it IS your money and you want it, please fill out and notarize this enclosed document, and we'll cut you a fresh one, otherwise, it's going to the Treasury Department's General Fund, thank you and have a nice day!"

But, that's no guarantee one was sent to him, or that he received it if he moved a lot.

My state seems to have much laxer rules on claiming funds. All I had to do was send a photocopy of my driver's license and attached form (name, address, social) that was notarized basically saying "YEah, under penalty of perjury, fraud and going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison, that's my cash and I'm this guy".

A week later, I got the check in the mail.

[Ghel]

I very much doubt it was turned over to the state. IRAs are watched closely. The customer would have gotten annual statements. And especially 6+ years ago (before the bank changed hands), we made every effort to contact customers before turning dormant accounts over to the state. I think it's just been closed so long that he forgot he even had the account until he found this documentation.

[TimmyHate]

under penalty of perjury, fraud and going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

Can I run this past our legal team to include in our declarations from now on?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

The unclaimed funds are a pain in the rear to collect;

I had a savings account as a child, that my mother opened to teach me about money and to save regularly. After 2 cross-country moves, the account was forgotten, and I recently (28 years later) found the funds (around $100) listed on my state's "unclaimed funds" website. Great, right? Not so fast-to prove it's mine, they want a utility bill bearing my name and the address on file...

From when I was 6 years old.

They won't take anything else to prove it's me, without some official proof-of-address. Ugh.

My mom ran into something similar a number of years back (late 90's IIRC) over a refund check for my late grandmother. The address they had listed for Grandma was from 45 years ago (around 69/70) and she had been dead since 1986.

IIRC not only did they want a copy of Grandma's death certificate (understandable) and Mom's birth certificate to prove she was next of kin (also understandable) but they also wanted a utility bill with Grandma's name on it and also that same address.

WTF people??? Needless to say that check to this day is unclaimed. Yet every so often the local newscasters will run periodic segments on unclaimed cash. Funny how they don't tell you that it's practically impossible to claim . . .

[MoonCat]

The utility bill thing looks like a scam to me....a way to keep people from being able to claim their funds. Everybody doesn't have utility bills in their name; what if you lived in an apt. that had the utilities included in your rent? A woman I work with does; her electric bill is figured into the rent, she never sees a separate bill.

And how does anyone prove they lived at some address years ago? Especially if they'v moved several times.

[CarcinogenCrunchies]

My siblings and I successfully claimed some money that was in our late father's name on the state's unclaimed funds website. The biggest pain was getting the form signed and notarized by all three of us kids, since we don't live near each other. We also needed a certified copy of the death certificate and some other junk. I don't remember needing any proof of address, and I think the address of record was actually the place where I lived briefly after his death.

We each got almost $1000 out of the deal, so it was worth it. There's still another unclaimed amount listed for him, but it's only for about 40 bucks, so it's just going to stay put.

[MadMike]

My state seems to have much laxer rules on claiming funds. All I had to do was send a photocopy of my driver's license and attached form (name, address, social) that was notarized basically saying "YEah, under penalty of perjury, fraud and going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison, that's my cash and I'm this guy".

I apparently have some kind of unclaimed property, but unfortunately they screwed up my address. They have my previous street address, mismatched with a town I lived in two addresses before that. I don't even think the address exists in that town. I know I don't have any documentation that shows I ever lived at that nonexistent address.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I apparently have some kind of unclaimed property, but unfortunately they screwed up my address. They have my previous street address, mismatched with a town I lived in two addresses before that. I don't even think the address exists in that town. I know I don't have any documentation that shows I ever lived at that nonexistent address.

That was what we ran into with my Grandmother's situation: not only was this address from some 30 years previous, but my Grandmother didn't have driver's license or any form of photo ID that I was aware or (or my Mom for that matter.) Not to mention that she'd moved a couple of times since that address they had listed for the insurance check (address she lived at was also back when she was still living with the middle daughter, who had since died.)

We still had Aunt Edna's driver's license with that address on it, but sadly nothing for Grandma.

[taxguykarl]

The utility bill thing looks like a scam to me....a way to keep people from being able to claim their funds.

You may be right, MC. State treasurers like to collect money, giving it out is another story.

And how does anyone prove they lived at some address years ago? Especially if they'v moved several times.

DMV would be my best guess. Also credit reports list prior addys--not all of them though.

[Argabarga]

Again, I seem to live in a state that doesn't want your unclaimed funds unless you really and truly don't care.

I remember that the letter I got had instructions on what to do if you had since married/changed address/changed sex/whatever or if the person whose name the funds were under had done the same or was deceased.

I don't recall exactly what you had to do, but in skimming them over, I don't recall any of them being excessively complex or something a competent attorney couldn't do.

But, when the amount to collect is $100 or less, I can see how you might just say heck with it, not worth my time.