| Reclaiming lost bank accounts |
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"Elderly people are warned about scams, so sometimes
it's hard to make contact with them. We have a gentleman who's very
good with this. He called her but she didn't want to provide some
of the information he needed over the phone. We actually sent the
branch manager to her house. We got her the money."
Sometimes it's a thankless job. Messerle and her crew
often spend a lot of time tracking down people only to get an irate
phone call.
"The letters we send have to be very specific -- 'please
sign this letter otherwise the account will be considered abandoned
and turned over to the state.' We also give an 800 number. They
call and get very angry -- 'You're not going to take my money away
...'"
But more often people are happy to find there's money
they didn't know about.
Robert Vernick of Wynnewood, Pa., found out his father
had passed away without letting anyone know he had set up a burial
fund for Vernick's mentally disabled brother. It was a red tape
mess because the father had moved from Pennsylvania to New Jersey
and no one had been given power of attorney over the account. Te
Messerle helped Vernick get it all straightened out and the $4,000
fund is now in the bank.
"Te was an angel -- I would still have been chasing
my tail. It was a tremendous surprise to find out about the money
and a relief. If something happened to my brother I would have had
to lay out the money," says Vernick.
When an account is escheated, the states also are
supposed to make an effort to contact the owner or heir.
Joy Koerber, a specialist with Florida's Unclaimed
Property division, says her state has more than $700 million in
nearly 3 million unclaimed accounts. By her estimate, one in seven
Floridians has unclaimed property.
"We publish in newspapers plus we have a database
we give the Department of Motor Vehicles so when someone renews
their license a flag comes up. We also contact database services
such as credit reporting companies to get more current addresses.
We try a lot of avenues to connect people with their money."
Safety deposit boxes
It's not just bank accounts and safety deposit
boxes that get escheated to states. The list includes insurance
policies, pensions, stock accounts, trust funds, utility deposits,
rent deposits, mortgage insurance refunds and even store gift certificates
that go unclaimed. That's not counting things such as undeliverable
Social Security checks and Federal tax refunds that are escheated
to the Federal government.
But some of the most interesting stuff is in safety-deposit
boxes.
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