Posted on 01/26/2019 6:47:58 AM PST by bgill
Dolores Nielsen, 91, kept an emergency savings account for years. But her hands-off approach caused her trouble. Her bank, SunTrust, declared her account dormant in April and closed the account. She's been trying since August to get her money. "I'm terribly worried," Nielsen said. "My savings have lost so much in value since I retired as it is, and it's very stressful for me." The account had more than $72,000. Dolores' daughter, Barbara, turned to Better Call Behnken for help, after trying for months to get the money and getting the runaround. She says the bank told her the state had the money, and the state told her they didn't and she needed to go back to SunTrust. "Then you start worrying it's disappeared," Barbara said. When accounts go dormant, banks by law must send the money to the state of Florida's CFO's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfla.com ...
NoTrust. Would never bank with them.
I'm 75 and all my accounts are "in trust for" my oldest child.
I've also provided her with a copy of all my credit cards, Bank accts, Insurance companies that I deal with, my will and any orders....everything I can to make things easier for her.
“It’s as good as money in the bank!” - Apparently that isn’t so good any more.
Perhaps 10 or more years ago there was a thread like this here on FR, so just for the hell of it I contacted the website of the NYS Comptroller for unclaimed funds. After a few interactions over several days I received checks amounting to more than a thousand dollars for various unclaimed accts/stocks, etc.
The sad truth be told, when you gain a sum of money almost every business and governmental entity is trying to get an angle to take that money from you.
401K? They trade you money around, making money off of the transactions but leaving you with less and less of your own money.
Savings Accounts? Banks charge you to hold your money, and as this story shows, will take it from you if you don’t use it.
The State? You rent your property from the state. Don’t pay property taxes and they come and take your land from you.
Don’t pay your taxes and and they come and take the r]taxes PLUS more of your money.
Everyone is trying to take your money from you.
Even when you die, the State takes as much of it away as they can.
I had this happen to my grandparents. They lived in the same small town and used the same bank, for most of the 90+ years of living. The dumbasses at the bank turned one of their small accounts over to the state for inactivity even though they had a checking account and a very large savings account over $100k.
But the $700 savings account? Sent to the state: inactivite.
My grandmother went to the bank and chewed some asses out on that one. She was in her 80’s at the time!
This is basically a method states use to acquire money. It’s always about the money with government.
If you do this to enough people you can count on a certain percentage to never get their money.
Another thing they do is charge a service fee if you don’t access your money with a certain frequency. The account gets smaller and smaller simply by doing nothing.
I’ll be 74 in a few weeks and your post points out the difference between our generation and that of our parents, the depression generation.
My parents NEVER discussed anything financial with my younger sister or me, so we went nuts trying to get stuff in order when alzhiemers (Mom) and dimentia (Dad) got hold of them. Fortunately, Dad had enough wits still to set my sister up with power of attourney....that helped a lot.
I’ve now done the same for my sister, will, PA, Medical PA, POD on all accts., co-ownership of safe deposit box, life ins. info. All the stuff my folks didn’t.
When I went to my folks’ bank to see what we had to do, the lady there told me that she was seeing that constantly with the children our parents’ generation. This was in 1998
We use two banks. One for everyday stuff one a checking and savings is an emergency backup. Every couple of years the second bank sends us a letter basically to confirm we are still alive. We then make a phone call and all is well... until the next time.
My bank, Citizens, steals 10 bucks a month if i don’t make a deposit.
I had $25 in a credit union once and forgot about it. Once I realized it was there, I contacted them and they sent they sent it to the state.
I never got any notice as I had moved and the notice was not forwarded.
I contacted the state and got my $25 returned to the credit union and in turn I got it back.
I’m glad the lady is getting her money back. But why on Earth would you keep such a large amount of money in a bank that is paying next to nothing in interest? I’m not a fan of bonds as an investment but at least with Treasuries your money is safe and your return has a shot at keeping pace with inflation. Or better yet buy VIG. You will get a fairly safe dividend of around 2% and the possibility of long term capital appreciation.
But did it take as long as this lady’s money to get back?
Why?
Habit
To one that is 90, the current low interest rates are but a passing fad
The rates are rising as we post
Death taxes is so very wrong.
Massachusetts publishes the list of unclaimed funds annually-——it is in all of the newspapers,including the local ones.
Very helpful——my daughter was on the list once-—she had moved out of state and forgot about a small account,about $200.00——we contacted her and she recovered it.
.
I think there's a centralized search website - missingmoney.com, IIRC.
She should have set up one payment to come out of the account monthly.
Florida’s had this law on the books for decades. They sweep accounts of retired people who have died - - before relatives know the money exists.
They send a notice. Easily overlooked. Make sure that you have some activity on each account every year.
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