Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-05-13
FORGOTTEN MONEY IN BANKS
"DeRd" or Unclaimed Accounts Many
in Number and Millions In
the Aggregate,

| banks and trust companies OF New York
City there is from 10000 TO as many mill
lion dollars worth of dead" or unclaimed
accounts. In most cases these sums orig
mate from small balances left by deposit
tors who have withdrawn their accounts
and have neglected to come around for
the odd sums which remain after their
main account has been taken out, Very
often deposits are made by persons who
having lodged their nest egg in safety,
never return again to the nest, and, in
case there is no will, their heirs never
know of the existence of the money so
| deposited.
Some time ago the state endeavored 20
take these sums from the banks and keep
| them as a government trust, but this ac-
ton was successfully opposed by the
| banks in court, their credit being judged
adequate security for the trust. Now, no
banks continue to pay interest upon ac-
counts unless the owner appears and has
his deposit vouchers renewed at least once
every fifteen years.
In New York City there is a man ia e
miliar to bank officials whose sole bust
ness is looking up heirs for these un-
claimed sums. He first ascertains, by
one way or another, what sums are lying
dead" and have been lying for number
of years, and under what circumstances
they were originally deposited. Then, by
means unknown only to himself, he finds
the lawful heirs, who gladly give a large
commission for the money so unexpectedly
falling to them
In England there is no legal provision
for unclaimed bank accounts as there is in
this country and France, where the law
requires that every five years all banking
institutions publish the names and last
known addresses Of owners of dormant or
unclaimed accounts. 1t has been esti-
mated that in chancery, the Bank of Eng
land and the thousands of private English
banking houses there is total sum OF
over S12,Ooo.O0o unclaimed.
The thought of so much wealth lying
unused, unowned, unsought for has driven
many weak-minded persons into insanity
and given bank officials many painful mo
ments. An old man, for instance, kept
calling for many years at a we'll known
banking establishment, asking to be paid
certain moneys which he declared had beer
left 20 him. OF course, it was all delu-
sion, but he would never believe so. and
after each denial would retire, consoling
himself with the imagination that as the
interest was compounded his money wat
every day increasing,
There are. several well recognized rea.
sons why money often falls under the
category of the great unclaimed" tho
commpnest one boing, strange as 1t may
seem, that the owner or depositor has
forgotten about II. 1t would seem thai
dollars and cents would be one Of tho
last things in the world that a person
would forget, yet in the 5000 or 5000
banks in Great Britain today there arc
not few depositors whose accounts liz
unclaimed from this cause alone.
Not long ago an old and apparently
penniless woman, who had become ineap
able by reason of age and infirmity, t
care for herself, was received at poor
house. In removing her wretched garment
, for new and clean ones 1t was found tina
a crumpied paper was sewn into the lining
Investigation revealed a bank deposit re
, ceipt for al00, or about $780, in the nam,
Of the new inmate, which dated twenty-flv,
years previously. The poor woman declared
, she remembered nothing about 1t, and, II
fact, almost disowned IT,
Another great reason that moneys lii
, unclaimed is that the owner dies. the re
eeipt is lost and the existence of the de
post is unknown to the next of kin.
An amusing incident in this connection
was told by a public bank officer, who ha,
> been in the habit Of advertising from tim
to time for lapsed depositors having con
A.. siderable sums to their credit. One o
' these, an aged spinster was thought to b,
4 dead but a few days after the advertise
, ment appeared she walked into the banl
and presented her receipt. Hardly hat
2 she left the officer after receiving bacl
her voucher when young woman ap
peared and declared proudly that she wa
4 a niece Of the advertised spinster whom
she now called to represent. honestly be
: lieving her to be dead What do yol
want to know" inquired the official "Oh
how much my aunt has left mel! was tn
reply Il can't very well tell you that,
replied the banker, but you can find GU
by asking your aunt herself at No. --
street" The heir, needless to say, retire,
In some confusion.
. II will hardly be credited, but there ar
depositors who, having lost their receipts
really believe they have forfeited all RICH
TO their own money. This class OF un
claimed deposits is, of course small, bu
Il is nevertheless true that some. afte
; losing their deposit voucher. become indif
! ferent after a time and finally grow int
: the firm conviction that their deposit 1
. forever lost 70 them.
Some save up for rainy day" whic
either never comes, or when II does, is no
wet enough to require an inroad into tn
. deposit, which lies untouched until It is for
; gotten. Others move away from the localit
where they have made a deposit an
keep putting OF a withdrawal of the sum
| Funeral expenses, or a deposit against pos
sible sickness, is often saved up and place
!, in banks TO be left untouched and unre
ferred 70 for the owners entire lifetime
, and often unknown even TO his heirs an
. | relatives.
; The largest sums unable to be used b
. any one are those I'm chancery'-money
: which legal disputes tie up pending a set
: Element, which sometimes is not arrive
!, at until after many years Of litigation
!, Could all the money in chancery In Grea
], Britain be freed Il would be a sudicien
J, sum TO wipe out the national debt and st
leave the chancellor OF the exchequer a Re,
millions sterling as surplus-Kansas Cit
d Star