pixelbend

My grandfather died in 2000 of lukemia. While he was alive he like to move his money around a lot to different banks to take advantage of interest rates, services, free toasters, etc. I was talking to my mom yesterday and she told me that my great aunt (who did the same thing with her money) is sure that my grandfather has a saving account in Omaha that he initially put $30k into.

We don't have any paperwork for the account and don't even know what bank it is in, just that it was in Omaha. We have all the nessacary paper work from him (birth and death cert., power of attorney, etc.).

Is there any way to track this account down?

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braisler

Did he routinely use banks that we not in the town where he lived? Most of the people of that generation used a bank that had a branch near home. If you think that this might be the case, you could narrow down your search by checking with banks in the area he lived. If he was wiring money around to different banks in distant cities, then he was unusually progressive.

You might have some luck searching online to find candidate banks. Then just get on the phone and do the leg work of asking if the bank has any record of your grandfather's holdings. They should be able to look up his name to see if he ever banked with them.

Also if you had any records of his previous accounts, you might be able to track where the money went to after leaving that account. If he used a wire transfer to move the money, they may still have a record of that.

Lastly, there are some publications of unclaimed assets that are usually published locally in the paper once a year. You might check with the local newspaper in that area to see if you can get a copy of that information. Beware of scams obviously.

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pixelbend

Thanks for the suggestions. He lived in Southern Illinois, so I guess he was pretty progressive.

I'll start making a list of banks in Omaha and try and contact them. Hadn't thought of checking the records of his old accounts though. Good idea.

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NoSoup

Watch his mail for statements - typically institutions will issue at least annual statements unless he specifically requested that they do not.

Worse case scenario, they are required to send information at the end of the year regarding the amount of interest he earned, so either keep an eye out for next year or check his taxes from last year...

Good luck!

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Just in case you were wondering...

greeneyes

But if he died in 2000, they should have already been seeing those statements and end of year interest statements.

Power of Attorney paperwork is null and void after the person dies (at least in the state of Indiana). Is there an executor of the estate? If there is, have that person call banks in Omaha. I would ask to speak to a branch manager or someone in the trust department who will probably have more experience with this sort of thing. Unfortunately, the executor will have to provide proof of identity which more likely than not will need to be done in person.

I've run into a few situations such as this and all I needed to see was a death certificate and some sort of paperwork naming a beneficiary or executor. Something else you should be aware of is dormant account policies. In Indiana, an account is considered dormant after a year of non-use, ie no deposits or withdrawals and no, interest deposits do not count. A dormant fee is assessed after a year and is typically five dollars. However, after a certain amount of time (seven years in Indiana) that money will then be turned over to the state.

Hope that helps!

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