The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-13
Baltimore American.)

Every savings bank that has been es-
tablished for twenty-five years has
what are called dormant accounts, de-
posts which have lain untouched for
years. Usually the persons who depos-
tied the money are dead and their heirs
have no knowledge of the bank ac-
count.
The sum total of these accounts in
New York state probably runs from
S2,5OO, 600 to $4,000, 600. In 1889 the report
as TO the total amount of these ac-
counts to the state commissioner of
banking was about 100000. Since
then, reports are made but the sum to-
tai is not given. OF course, the sum
has grown and several of the savings
bank authorities put the an4eunt I'M
claimed at fully $4,000, 900.
These accounts are troublesome to
the banks. They have to be carried on
the balance sheets and verified. The
banks try to get rid of them and many
of the larger banks now employ special
agents to look up the owners or the
heirs of the depositors. 1t is a custom
of some of the banks TO cease to credit
interest on an account which has been
sleeping twenty-five years. The law
recognizes such accounts as dormant
If no change has been made in twenty
two years, and no one has called for the
money. Twenty years used to be re-
garded as the limit but when the law
was passed in the late sos requiring re-
ports on these accounts the term was
heightened to twenty-five.
Most of this money is in the savings
haDlxc IF Now VOrL ri an1 for
most part such accounts are rare in
small places. One reason for this is
that in small towns nearly every man
who dies is fairly well known locally
and the fact that he had a savings bank
deposit is also known. His heirs got
the money quickly. In New York city,
however. there are thousands of these
accounts. Few persons are as well
known in New York as they are i'm
smaller places of the state, and it is
easier for savings bank accounts to es-
cape general knowledge.
Many of the accounts are dormant
because their owners have forgotten
all about them. Some are dormant be-
cause the deposits were made without
the knowledge of relatives. Many wives
save up a little money secretly from
their husbands and say nothing about
it, Many women also hide bank books
so that they are not found when the
hider dies, Again, bank books are
burned and the heirs of the depositors
have no knowledge of the savings Now
and then a misery tendency leads per-
sons to keep accounts secret from their
relatives and friends. Sometimes ac-
counts are taken out in assumed names.
Through many of these reasons the ac-
counts become dormant and the Off
Gals of the banks come to regard them
as nuisances. The money belongs TO
some one. THE difficulty is to find the
rightful heir.
Tracing RightfuI Heirs.
For many years the banks used TO
set their clerks and other employees
hunting up at odd times the rightful
owners of the money. Little was ac-
complished. Finally several of the
large banks secured a special man to
look up these heirs and now for sew
eral years there have been payments TO
hundreds who never knew that they
were entitled to the money.
1t is a difficult job to find these heirs
After they are found there must be le-
gal proof of ownership. Death rec
ords must be searched. proofs of rela-
tionship established and administra-
tors must be appointed. Not until all
this is done VIII the savings bank lei
the money go. The task involves not
only detective work, but legal work OF