UNCLAIMED MONEY

Evening Star, Issue 19773, 25 January 1928, Page 3

UNCLAIMED MONEY

MILLIONS IN BANKS NEGLECTFUL OWNERS DORMANT ACCOUNTS. There is lost treasure amounting to several millions of dollars buried in. the vaults of New York banks and trust companies the New York ‘Times’). Part of tbat board has lain there only a few years; some of it has gathered the dust of a century, waiting for its owners or their heirs and assigns to come and claim it. Every year a tew of them do turn up, either of their own accord or at the instigation of bank advertisements and investigators; but in the meantime the treasure has been added to by the accounts of others who have died intestate or gone away or simply forgotten their money. Beyond the natural causes that may leave a savings account or stocks and bonds ownerless there are the avoidable errors of carelessness and negligence, which have much the same effect. Investment bankers and financial counsel grow weary pointing out that money at work must be watched and supervised no less than men at work. It is not enough, they say, to buy securities and then leave them untouched in a steel box. It is necessary to watch the operations of the company for which they are issued, if one is to know whether they are becoming more valuable or gradually worth less. And it is necessary to heed printed warnings of calling or conversion. To emphasise this point, one investment counsel recently called attention to the fact that “in spite of ample notice in the Press and elsewhere holders of about 550,000 dollars of 5j per cent, convertible debentures of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company noglectd to avail themselves of the valuable conversion privilege.” That negligence cost them about 71,000 dollars. FAILURE TO CLIP COUPONS. Last May about 92,000,000 dollars’ worth of Federal farm loan bonds were called in; widespread publicity was given to the impending ad ion beforehand. Yet at the present time there are said to be 9,000,000 dollars’ worth outstanding. Failure to clip coupons and collect earnings due is said to be due of the commonest aspects of neglect. Many persons apparently forget all about their bonds ns soon as (hey are bought. Speculation as to the reasons behind this neglect are limitless. How much money is lost in that way every year it is impossible to compute. One would have to be gifted with a clairvoyance capable of piercing not only the steel walls of all the safe deposit vaults in the country, but also the desks and drawers, secret safes, and loose tiles, and other quaint and curious places in which people hide their valuables.

Every effort is made to find the nghtiul owners of securities in many cases, but often without success. Advertisements asking them to come and claim their money may be seen frequently in the financial pages of the newspapers, and sometimes the same name reappears year after year. The name of Johanna Murphy, for instance, has passed into financial legend. It was in January, 1825, that Johanna came into possession of two shares of the stock of the Manhattan Company. One hundred and ninety-seven dividends have been de dared by the company in the century tbat has intervened. And each year the bank of the Manhattan Company advertises hopefully for Johanna, but there has been no response.

ESTIMATES OF UNCLAIMED MONEY. About money that lies unclaimed in savings accounts many legends have gathered. The ancient canard that savings banks are able to build themselves elaborate new buildings with unclaimed funds, at the expense of°lhe lost investors, is no longer as widely circulated as it once was, but it still has believers. The barber on a rubberneck car that used to carry gaping tourists through the financial district was heard to astonish his audience with a version that ran something like this; “And on your left, la-dccz and genulrann, is thee Seamen’s Bank for Savings, which has mil-yuns and mil-yuns of dollars in its vaults belonging to sailors who were lost at soa.” Actually, an official of that bank recently said, it has approximately 300,000 dollars in a total of 2.500 unclaimed accounts, and 600 of these belong to sailors.

Strict regulations cover unclaimed or “dormant” accounts. Tbe State banking laws forbid the bank to take over the money, no matter how long it has lain unclaimed in their vaults. And it requires the bank to advertise for the owners (or their heirs or assigns) of all accounts that have been doy mant for twenty years or more. Some of them never will be found. Several times efforts have been made in tbe State Legislature to amend the banking laws so that the money shall reverb to the State after a certain number of years. So far such attempts have failed iu New Y’ork, though laws of that nature have been passed elsewhere.

Several years ago, when John Skclion Williams was United States Controller, it was computed that 5.5 per cent, of nil the savings accounts iu the country were lying dormant. It was said that in country districts alone there wore about 800,000 accounts, aggregating more than 22,000,000 dollars, awaiting missing owners. Another survey' arrived at the conclusion that (he country banks of Pennsylvania led in dormant accounts, while New York State, Maine, and Now Jersey followed in order. It has been said that the banks of New York State alone carry more than 300,000 dormant accounts, representing several millions of dollars. All these estimates avo based only on facts available or reported. EFFORTS TO FIND OWNERS. Most savings banks have officials whoso whole duty it is to trace depositors so that (■licit money may be restored to them. George Devine, of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, has spent thirty-five years at this work. He has collected a library of directories and genealogies, according to a recent statement, seeking ways and moans of finding lost persons. Mr Devine is quoted as saying; “ Contrary to general belief, the greatest problem of settling these accounts is get ting the nearest relative to accept the money due. Immediately upon notification they believe themselves the victim of a hoax.” In the course of his experiences Herbert K. Twitchcll, president of the Seamen’s Bank for Savings, which has a special search department, has received several suggestions as to what to do with the money. These have come to him from various parts of the country shortly after the bank lias advertised a list of unclaimed deposits. One woman wrote saying that she had been wanting to visit her sister in St. Louis for a long time, but could not afford the trip. She suggested that Air Twitchcll advance her the money out of the unclaimed funds. A man had a more practical suggestion. He said he needed 5,000 dollars with which to build a house. After asking for the money from the same source, and apparently certain that it would bo sent to him, he added, magnanimously: “If you want me to keep quiet about it I will do so.” Sometimes a notice carries to heirs the first intimation that the owner of funds in question is lost or dead. In some cases the hank has been called upon to find a person it bad not listed as missing. In that way searches covering half the globe have been made. Individuals are not the only owners of dormant accounts. Curiously enough, tho names of persons designated as the executors of trusts frequently appear among the lists of those who have neglected to lake care of accounts in the banks. Many accounts are in the names of chibs or business firms or associations of one sort or another, which have dissolved, leaving funds, but no address.