In 1984 a relative went to his local bank and opened an IRA and deposited it into an automatically renewing Certificate of Deposit. He has the paperwork stating this and he received IRA statements from 1986-1989. After 1989 he no longer received statements. The bank changed hands 2 times since he purchased the CD. When he went to withdraw the CD several months ago he was told that no record existed. They had no record that anything ever transpired. He has been repeatedly told that they don't keep records longer than 7 years and the IRS told him the same thing. The state's unclaimed property also has no record of this account. This is an elderly man who trusted his savings to a bank and they have lost his money and say "you have to prove we lost this." He trusted the bank when he opened the account, they lost the money.
Shouldn't the bank be the one that has to have proof they withdrew it? What can we do to get his money back?

Have you contacted your state's unclaimed property division?

Yeah sounds like the account went dormant and then escheat. He should have received notification of this. Our bank will send out a simple form and all the customer needs to do is sign and return it. Basically so we know they are still alive if there is no activity on the account for a long time.

When he went to withdraw the CD several months ago he was told that no record existed. So you are telling me he is just finding this out 15 years later? He gets statements for 5 years, then nothing for 15 and he thinks he still has money there?

Sounds like someone is trying to get something for nothing. The bank doesn't owe him a penny!

Yeah, I didn't quite understand that either. He knew that he quit getting statements after 1989. Why wouldn't he say something THEN?

Why be so critical? This person is just asking for advice to help a friend/relative.

You may be elderly someday yourself.

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You may be elderly someday yourself.

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I can only hope...Anyway, try the state unclaimned property division. In Louisiana, it is run by the state treasurer's office. I'm sure it changes by state.

Did you really read the questioners post--they said they had contacted their state's unclaimed property department to find they did not have any record of the money.

Unfortunately, things in the banking world have changed considerably since this gentleman opening the CD account. After decades of relative stability, banks have changed hands, some several times. States have passed and begun enforcing unclaimed property laws. Recordkeeping practices have changed, so that previous practices that might have allowed decades of records to accumulate have been honed down to retention based on legal requirements only, as space has become more expensive.

Unhappily, some of our elders have lost touch with some of their long-term assets because of these changes. I don't know whether this gentleman will be able to determine the fate of his money. But the lesson here is for family members -- where we are fortunate enough to have them -- need to know where our accounts are and to be aware of what's going on with them. We need to be proactive when mergers and acquisitions take place, to assure ourselves of the transition of our funds from one bank to the next. We need to question our bankers when something changes -- as in statements going missing.

I can speak from experience here from dealing with elderly parents and in-laws. I've been in your exact situation.

It is possible that the gentleman actually redeemed the CD 15 years ago, but now does not remember that fact and is "looking for his money".

As our loved ones age, they forget about the things they did when they were 100% and no one else (meaning us kids) was looking over their shoulder. Remember someone elderly today, was not so elderly 15 years ago.

Another interesting item I've experienced is finding stock certificates when going through my grandparents papers. We all got very excited (no, they weren't AT&T) and started tracking them down. After weeks of research, we discovered that they were from a company that no longer existed and were more worthless than wallpaper. My grandfather kept them as a reminder to be more prudent in his stock purchases.

Good luck, maybe the gentleman cashed the CD and put the cash under the mattress.

We had a similar situation with my Grandmother. She is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, so we started to get all of her financial affairs in order. My dad is her POA and started tracking down old accounts and CD’s. Her bank, too, had changed hands a few times, but she was adamant that she still had a CD with them They were nice enough to do some research (unfortunately, I am not sure how - microfiche perhaps) and were able to determine that 5+ years ago she cashed it in and deposited it (all $30,000) into checking. It has long since been spent.

I am not saying that this is in any way the same as the poster’s situation. But I am trying to encourage to you (the original poster) to not give up. Perhaps there is more that the bank can do for you or more advice that they can offer.

Thanks for the advice. My father-in-law was told this CD was an automatically renewing CD. He just assumed when he no longer got statments that it was renewing and nothing needed to be done. He did not take the money out of the bank. He wanted to save it for when he had retired and would need the money.I guess the moral of the story is...don't trust others, especially with your money.

Another thought to consider is the fact you mentioned it was an IRA Certificate. If this were the case and he is passed 70 1/2 years of age (maybe back around 1989 or so??), it is possible the bank was paying out his required annual distribution. This could have depleated the funds (maybe rapidly depending on the size of the investment). Just another avenue to consider...