Lost CD Found Decades Later: How to Reclaim Your Money
Old certificates of deposit can be tricky to reclaim if banks have purged records. Experts share steps to protect and recover your funds.
Discovering a long-forgotten certificate of deposit tucked in a drawer or inherited estate can feel like a windfall — until the account holder contacts the bank and learns the institution has no record of the funds. That scenario, more common than many depositors realize, stems from the limited window banks are legally required to retain account records.
Under federal and state regulations, banks generally must hold dormant account records for only a set number of years. After that period lapses, institutions may purge documentation, leaving customers with little paper trail to pursue a claim directly through the bank. The older the CD, the slimmer the odds that the original issuing branch — or even the bank itself, through mergers and acquisitions — still exists in recognizable form.
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Financial experts advise that unclaimed funds from dormant accounts are often escheated, meaning transferred, to state governments rather than simply vanishing. Each state maintains an unclaimed property database, and consumers can search those registries free of charge to see whether their money was remitted. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators operates a centralized portal that connects users to individual state databases.
To prevent the problem from arising in the first place, advisers recommend keeping physical copies of CD contracts alongside other important financial documents, informing family members or a trusted fiduciary of all accounts, and periodically checking that contact information on file with financial institutions is current. An outdated address can prevent banks from sending required notices before funds are turned over to the state.
For those already holding a recovered CD with no bank record to match it, the path forward typically involves gathering any original documentation — the physical certificate, account numbers, and any correspondence — and filing a claim with the appropriate state unclaimed property office. Continue reading at NYT > Business.
