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Show | Abandoned— $15Billion! ' Does Any Belong to YOU? 5 wsrn assnsox Who hasn’t daydreamed of reaping a windfall—of finding gold underneath a loose slab in the cellar or discovering oil spouting from a hole to locate the owner of stock certificates that had been outstanding for nearly 15 years. It turned out that the owner had died in Chicago; but her only daughter—a poor invalid—was found in California, and was able to establish her legal claim in Illinois. in the back yard? Of course, we all tell ourselves that, in The number of people whofile and forget stock certificates deemed to be valueless is staggering. Eisenberg esti- real life, such things don’t happen. mates that there are more than five million yellowing, dog-earedcertificates. Most of them are in attic trunks, ay Americans have been able to realize such dreams. Many more may do so. A huge fortune is lying un- among old family papers, in storage bins, or in piles of basement clutter. claimed in this country, waiting to be tapped by the right people. The fortune, according to an estimate by the Wall Street Journal, amounts to $15 billion. It’s not in buried gold or back-yard oil weils, but in abandoned stock and bond holdings, accumulated dividends, bank accounts, legacies, and insurance proceeds. Some of this fantastic accumulation of wealth has been building up for generations. As a result, in certain cases the abandoned property is valuable enough to make its owner an instant millionaire. For example, there are stocks and bonds registered in the name of one Mary Griffin that are now worth more than a million dollars. All that is known of Mrs. Griffin is that she lived in New York City 30 years ago—and all she or her heirs would have to do to collect the bonanza, is to show up and prove they are the rightful owner or inheritors. And if anybody at all ever pro- duces Texas Pacific Land Trust Certificate Number 290—the largest single missing security in the country—he or she can turn it in to the Republic Na- tional Bank of Dallas, Tex., for a cool $2 million. Why would assets of such great val- ue be abandoned? These are the principal reasons: 1) So many corporationshave changed their names over the years or merged into. new firms, that many of their investors assume they have gone out of business. Some stockholders, no longer seeing the name of the company in newspaper stock market listings, be- lieve their investments have become worthless, when actually their holdings still have real value. 2) Our modern mobility makes many owners of valuable property “missing persons.” People who change residences fo SOMELSE SSH stock certificates might reap °S mall fortune for owner orheirs. houses, corporations, banks, or insurance companies. Simply leaving a forwarding address with the post office isn’t enough; local postmasters tend to stop forwarding mail after a reasonable time has elapsed. 3) Surprisingly, people tend to be careless about bank books, lists of safedeposit holdings, records of trust funds, etc. These are frequently misplaced or lost. As the years go by, the owners mayforget all about them. In recent years, state governments hungry for revenue have been casting covetous eyes on this treasure trove of abandoned property. Some have passed that still have value. Many of these people are presumed dead; but their heirs can collect on the certificates. Periodic field searches for missing stockholders and heirs are often com- because he or sheis afraid the spouse holdsit “in custody” for the legal claimants, Usually, however, if claimants may want to give away some of the assets to relatives on the other side of the family. Then there are men and women who are miserly and prefer to take their secrets to the grave.” In one bizarre case, the grave site yielded the key that enabled the tracing agency to find two heirs to $300,000 in securities. The fortune was left by an American who had lived as a recluse abroad. The only clue was the family name—an old New England one. In- at their national offices at 515 Madison Avenue, New York City, N.Y., a list studying the records of those responsi- often sometimes neglect to leave for- of three million names of registered ble for upkeep of the graves. warding owners of outstanding stock certificates 12 with brokerage Family Weekly, February 7, 1971 worth money, he Banking and brokerage authorities and professional tracers offer these sug- Even if you think the corporation you vestigators combed ceineteries for a tombstone that bore the name, and then located the two living relatives by addresses were jackpots totaling $500,000,000. The largest individual payout was $400,000 —which went to an elderly Chicago woman. “We've found many people won’t ‘ell their spouses about stocks they've it doesn't do so unconditionally. It involved legal proceedings to get the money back. Tracers Company of America, the oldest and largest agency in the country in the business of finding missing stockholders, missing heirs, and missing relatives, has facilities for checking on every stock jssued since 1860. For a nominal fee, they will determine the current value of a security for any stock certificate. They also maintain, they couldn’t get them off without ripping them, so he sawed around them and cut off a piece of wall. He took the piece to New York and exchanged it for $18,000. : gestions to protect you and your fam- claimed for as long as 1U or 15 years may be taken over by the state. But ever turn up, they have to go through ered missioned by corporations or executors or estate lawyers. Over the past four decades, such searches have turned up bought,” says Daniel Eisenberg, founder and president of Tracers. “In some families, buying stocks used to be considered a form of gambling. In other cases, the husband or wife is secretive laws specifying that assets left un- There are also people who paper their walls with “worthless” stock certificates to remind themselves of their folly in having bought them. One man in St. Petersburg, Fia., glued his certificates to his wall. When he discov- In another case, tracers were asked ily from involuntary forfeiture: @ Never destroy stock certificates. invested in has gone broke, write to the company for information, and don’t take anything for granted. e@ Take a day off to search your homeoryourparents’ home from basementto attic for certificates that might have been stashed away long ago. ® Never move without leaving a forwarding address with your bank, brokerage houses, insurance companies, and Government agencies with which you've had dealings. It’s also a good idea to leave your new address with your old employer. © Don’t take a chanceon theft, fire, or forgetfulness. Put stock certificates and other valuables in a safe-deposit box, along with a record of when, through whom, and at what price you bought them. Keep a duplicate of this record at home, and let your executor know aboutit. @ Keep your bank account “active” —simply by periodically mailing 10 your passbook to have your dividends credited. In some states, savings accounts that have been inactive for a certain number of years are taken into State custody. |