Laura (no, not me) is trying to track down a 37-year-old certificate of deposit that belonged to her grandparents. This is more difficult than it sounds, since their original bank was gobbled up by progressively larger and larger banks until it became part of…Bank of America. Laura’s grandmother passed away recently, and it bothers her that this situation isn’t resolved. She’s determined to find this lost CD: even though Bank of America alternately claims that there are no records of it, or that her grandfather cashed it in after he died.

I came across your site today and read a story VERY similar to mine. It’s the story of Bette Miller and Bank of America refusing to cash a bond.

I have a CD of my grandparents that I had been researching for my grandmother years ago. My grandmother has recently passed and it always bothered me there was no resolution.

The original CD was purchased in 1974 and had renewed numerous time. It was also passed bank to bank, as the original bank was bought acquired by other banks. My grandmother had called her local BOA in Florida and was even given dates & maturity amounts. They promised to send her paperwork and when it never came she asked me to help her. When I called, there mysteriously was NO RECORD of the CD.

They told me my grandfather cashed it, but seeing he was deceased, I would say it wasn’t him that cashed it!

It is possible that my grandmother filled out the missing certificate forms and cashed it, but she had a pretty good memory and this had bothered her for YEARS.

Please, if you can point me in the right direction, i would very much appreciate it. I have contacted the FDIC and they have no record of unclaimed funds for either of my grandparents.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

The bank’s claim that her grandfather cashed the CD after he passed away raises a red flag for me. It could be that those documents ended up in the hands of a criminal, who impersonated Laura’s grandfather and took the money. But there are other, less scary possibilities, too.

Check with the unclaimed funds office of the state in which the grandparents lived when they opened the CD–or the state in which they lived the last time they renewed it or had any contact with the bank over the account. You can either search directly or get the link to the proper state website at MissingMoney.com.

Any other ideas for Laura, if you’ve been through something similar?

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