UNCLAIMED MONEY IN AMERICA

Shannon News, 9 March 1928, Page 1

UNCLAIMED MONEY IN AMERICA

There is lost treasure a'mounting to several mill.ons of dollars buried in the vaults of New York banks ana trust companies, states the New York Times. Part of that hoard has toil. theie only a few years; some of it has gathered the dust of a century, waiting for its owners or their heir? and ass'jjns to come and claim - it Every ye.'.r a few of them do turn up either of their own accord or at the instigation of the bank advertisements and investigators.; but in the meantimt the treasure lias been added to by tin accounts of others who have d'ed in testate, or gone away, or simply forgotten their money.

Beyond the natural causes' that maj leave :i savings account or stocks anil I bonds owner!, ss, there arc the avoid- ! able errors of carelessness and ncgli genee which have much the same ef ect. Investment bankers and financial counsel grow wary pointing out thai money at work must be . watched and supervised no less than men at work It is not enough, they say, to buy sc curities and then leave them untouched in a steel box. It is necessary tc watch the operations of the companj for which they are'issued, if'one is "to know whether they are becoming mori valuable or gradually worthless. Failure to clip coupons and colleci earning? due is said to.be one of tm commonest aspects of neglect. Manj persons appardntly forget all about their bonds as soon as they are bought, Speculation as to the reason') behind this neglect are limitless. How much money is lost in that way every year, it is impossible to compute. Oire 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 tht rightful owners of securities in many cases, but often without success. Advertisements asking them to conie anri claim their money may be seen fre quently in the financial pages of the newspapers and sometimes the same name reappears year after year. The name of Johanna Murphy, foi instance, has passed into financial leg end. It was in January, 1825, thai Johanna came into possession of two shares of the stock of the Manhattan Company. One hundred and ninety seven dividends have been declared bv the company in the century that hat intervened. And each year the Bank of the Manhatton Company advertises hopefully for Johanna, but there ha* been no response.

Several years ago, when John Skel ton Williams was United States Con troller, it was computed that 5.5 pei cent, of all the savings accounts in tht country were lying dormant. It wassaid that in country districts aloni there were a number of accounts aggregating more than 22,000,000 dollars awaiting missing owners. Anoth* survey arrived at the conclusion thai the country banks in Pennsylvania led in dormant accounts, while New Yorl State, Maine and New Jersey followed: in order. It has been ■ said that th< banks of New York State alone carry, more than 30,000 dormant accounts, re presenting several millions of dollars All these estimates are based only oi> facts available or reported.

Most savings banks have official.whose duty it is to trace depositor.so that their money may be restored to tii em. George Dcvino., of tht Brooklyn Savings Bank, has spenl thirty-five years at this work. -He has collected .i library of directories and genealogies, according to a reccrn statement, seeking ways and means of finding lost persons, Mr. Devine ir quoted as saying :—" Contrary to gene ral belief, the greatest problem of set tling these accounts is getting the nearest relative to accept the money due. Immediately upon notification they believe themselves the victim of a hoax."

Sometimes a notice .carries to heirs the first intimation that the owner of funds in question is lost or dead. In some cases the bank has been called upon to find a person it had not Hated as missing. In that way searches covering half the »globe have been made.

Individuals' arc not the only owners of dormant accounts. Curiously enough the names of persons designated as .the executors of trusts frequent-, ly appear among the lists of those who have neglected to take care of "accounts in the banks. Many accounts are in the names of clubs or business firms or associations of one sort or another, which have dissolved, lea-ving 1 funds but no address.