They have some discretion, but as a rule of thumb, if they can recover enough of both serial numbers to verify bill wasn't cut in half, they replace it. If they can recover one, you get half. And it isn't a straight mechanical process- they also read the cover letter and judge the situation. (Leastways, according to the sequence on the TV on 'modern marvels' or one of those shows, where they showed footage of the lab where they do the work.)
I don't think it is significant fraud vector for the feds. It's not like anyone is gonna burn money to get a dollar-for-dollar replacement.
Your bank gave you false information. Boxes have two keys, one which they put in, one which you put in, then their representative leaves the room. It takes two keys to open them, or at least every one I've seen, and that would be about 100.
Safe deposit boxes are safe, although some have been burglarized, and accessed by bank employees in the past. A black plug key is put into the decedent's keyhole upon notification of death, and access may be restricted after that, but if someone gets there first and cleans it out ................. Some of the prementioned bank employee accesses were on deceased renters.
There are new things that are like safe deposit boxes that are used by all manner of people. Mostly drug and illicit money people, and those who just need access to lots of cash 24/7. Some have iris scans, and all are relatively safe.
You cannot get into a bank box 24/7, only during business hours and hot on bank holidays. They are not going to give you a receipt for a $4.6 million diamond ring, which they then legally take custody of, by filling out any paltry paperwork. It would have to be appraised, etc. Same for valuable coins, artifacts, historical items, one of a kind rarities, etc.
All in all, they are a very safe, secure place, although can be seized by the IRS or other means. If 24/7 access is an issue, then the private vaults would be your way to go. Just remember that you have to drive to and from there, and anyone on the street that sees you go in there at 2 AM might have an interest in you on the way in or out. The pros will know when you're holding, and the punks will shoot you even if they miss the call and don't get any money anyway.
Good luck.
If it wouldn't be divulging too much, what, exactly is it you want to secure? Be vague. Maybe the installation of a floor safe would do the same thing.
SteveB
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worked in a bank for over 40 years in California. It is true the box is sealed upon the death of an owner. However, It is permissible for the joint tenant or an executor to have access to the box for the purpose of removing a will and/or burial instructions ONLY, in the presence of a bank employee. The balance of the bank contents are only released after being inventoried by a representative of the government-for inheritance tax purposes. Elgy
I cannot imagine needing $6000 in lawyer costs unless it was a huge or complicated estate. Or a shady lawyer taking advantage of a situation.
Maybe we've just been lucky, but neither my wife no my family has never argued over what little estate there was amongst parents. I guess modest means has some advantages.
Lawyer fees are typically 3% of the value of the estate. Typically your estate is going to pay that and more if you use a lawyer who has a Saturday morning show on TV and his picture on buses telling you how they are going to "help you".
They close the deal by charging a really small fee for their "advice" in creating a complicated will that insures lots of work for them. Since lots of people shop on price they think they just got a super deal.
This isn't unusual and just happened in the case of my sister in laws mothers' estate. She said the mother was impressed she was only charged $50 by the guy who has his picture on every bus and billboard.
Her mother passed on and it took almost a year to address the details of a small estate because of the way the lawyer crafted the will. After six months she called to ask the status and there was a line item on his $8,000 bill for that "phone consultation".
I have seen family members raid their parents home before the funerals to glom onto every little thing they wanted for themselves. I have also seen my own family be entirely open, selfless and generous in taking care of our parents' estates. Another person, at his death, had a list in his wallet of all the financial assistance given to his children forever....I made a decision that day that if my kids ever needed money, and I was able and willing to help them, there would be no loans. If I could afford to lose it, a chance with a loan, I could afford to give it and there would be no more to the issue to poison our relationship like "owing" money. If a kid asked for money and I could not or would not help, there would also be a fair and reasoned discussion...might be the reason all of my kids can have differences, tension, and then discuss them and get it settled and still love each other.
...[goes on about the limitations in the particular case]...
So again to reiterate, not only do the rules depend on the State, even within a given state it may (and does) depend on the details of the particular situation.
The lesson to be learned is to find out what the law is in your own state and generally it's wise to have a coholder if one has intent that access to the contents should be uninterrupted on one's demise although there are places where possibly even that isn't so; in the quick perusal I noted before into NY law (although I certainly didn't do enough to be certain I didn't find it explicitly mentioned but I didn't actually find the pertinent section of NY Code itself, either).
A bit more off topic but I used to have one until I got a free ~100 year old safe. I'm told by a previous safe mover that it weighs about 2 tons. About 29x28x38". Walls average 12" thick, lots of steel, I think layers of steel and concrete. Not much money in it, mostly important papers, some CD's of photographs, vehicle titles. I believe it has enough mass that if the garage burnt down the inside would never get hot enough to burn papers. I used to keep a jug of water in it so if the temp got high inside it would stay cooler with the water steaming inside it. I don't know if that would help but it sort of makes sense to me? It's on wheels but I may remove them someday, it's difficult to move now but it would be a real bitch to steal without wheels and the bottom sitting flat on the concrete floor.
It was first moved to my house with the help of a front end loader and chains, then out of the basement with the help of a rollback to a storage unit. From there I moved it by myself with the help of a cherry picker, into a trailer and hauled it 600 miles and into my new garage. I beefed up the floor of the trailer so it wouldn't fall through the floor and sit on the axles.
There are 2 kinds of safe - burglary and fire. Fire safes have a lot of insulation in the walls which is not particularly resistant to burglary. Burglary safes have lots of steel in the walls which is not particularly resistant to fire. UL has different ratings for each of them.
I don't know if the mass of your safe would allow papers to survive a garage fire. Would be interesting if a 100 year old burglary safe has relockers to protect from punching the lock. On the other hand, I might get a safe if it was free just because it is interesting.
The thermal mass of a concrete floor would add to the fire protection of a floor safe. I don't know if that makes them safe for fires. Or if they would keep out water in a fire event.
I wouldn't bet that a fire safe that was cheap enough that I would be interested in buying it would provide enough protection for a real hot fire.
The second lesson is that sometimes even the institution doesn't actually know the law and may be overly conservative as in the above where the limitation apparently was attempted to be placed on any box regardless of a surviving coholder or not. There may be some other nuance/conflicting statute in CA law I didn't find, but nothing contravening the above showed up in quick look-see that would preclude the surviving legitimate coholder from having unfettered access to the content of his box (think surviving spouse as most common instance).
I saw an interesting idea for a "safe" some years ago. It was just a four inch "clean out" plug in a utility room floor, in a place that looked pretty much right but there was a hollow space under it that you could fill with quite a bit of stuff. I imagine since it was below grade, you could put a fiberglass plug in there and have quite a bit of thermal protection. It is also likely to be overlooked by most burglars.
I'll second that. I don't have kids, but I do have underemployed siblings, and a kid sister that hit college age at a time when our parents happened to be broke. A year after she graduated, she asked about when I expected her to repay me, and I told her that I hadn't kept track, but it was now her turn when the next generation hit college age. That is what money is for, isn't it? Taking care of your own?
True, but are you saying this means it's smart to take chances with what might be valuable data, by storing it in a place where (depending on climate) the temperature ranges from 0 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit?
Be careful with your next response. This is a trap.
My mother asked each one of us what furniture and "stuff" we wanted of hers and burned in our names and the date it was "given" on the back. There were no arguments when she died.
When my MIL died, her step kids made asses of themselves. One stole a rocking char that my wife had explicitly said she wanted. We told them to take anything they wanted of their father's, and we sold the most of the rest. They were pissed that they got no money. There wasn't any (maybe $5K at the end). They blew it all.
I have no problems with loans. If it's not paid back, fine. If it is, there is that much more than can be put to other good uses. Dependence isn't a good thing, IMO.
On-line backup is only as secure as the company's financial situation allows them to be- although admittedly unless they go broke right around the time you need your data you have time to replace them. From what I read in the NY Times, though, it takes a long time for an initial backup if you have, say, 1 tb of video files. Time as in months and months with a DSL connection.
But if your house burns down and thus your internet connection's also gone, let's say you move to a new apt and buy a computer. How long will it take to get a new internet connection and then download all of your data? I'd prefer to have it all on DVDs. Worst case I pay a HS kid to spend a day swapping disks to recover my data, assuming I left the disks elsewhere (as I do).
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