Does anyone in the group have a safety deposit box at a local bank? Or had one in the past?
I checked at a local bank here (Upstate N.Y.) if it matters. The one thing I don't like about it, is you don't get any kind of receipt for what you put in it. Also, the bank says only the person who has the box has a key to it. The only way the bank could get into it is if the rental fee is not kept current.
So, good or bad idea to get one? Any opinions and or comments will be greatly appreciated.
You don't get a receipt because no one but you knows what is in there. You open it, add or remove stuff in a private cubicle.
They require two keys to open. The bank keeps one and you get 2 copies of the other. The three keys are different. Lose one of yours and you have to pay a rekey fee. Lose both and it gets quite pricey as the lock has to be drilled and rekeyed.
Great place to keep small, irreplaceable items, stock certificates or the like. Keeping cash in one is not legal if I recall correctly. Old coins or the like is not the cash I mean.
The boxes take two keys to open it. If the bank doesn't have your key they have to hire a locksmith to come in and drill out the old lock and re-key the box. That's the reason for the hefty key deposit that you get back if you close our your box and bring your keys back.
when you die the bank locks the safety deposit box untill a tax collector can be present at opening. the tax man gets a shot at you even when dead.....
In my opinion it is a good idea if you have items that you would like to keep more safely than they would be in a dresser drawer. Things like car titles, property deeds, wills, etc. come to mind.
I don't know how the tax man gets involved, but they do. My mother had a box, dad knew of it,but did not have anything to do with it. Mother was a book keeper and did all the financal stuff. Dad did not even know how to write a check. He was plenty smart enough, but just did not have any interist in the finances of the family. I had to handle all the estate planning after mom died.
When mom died , the box was 'sealed' and I had to wait on the tax man. The only thing in it was a few hundred dollars of old coins. Decided to call it a coin collection and assigned a value to it.
Whatever you do, do not put a will in the box. Also do not put anything in it that you may need for a month after the person dies. It may not take that long, but it could to get the tax man to the box.
NEVER put a will in the box. It is sealed when the person dies and you can not get to it for a while. There has to be an officer of the court (referred to as the tax man eairly) present to list the contents of the box.
Great for some stuff, not as good for others. I have a box at home with passports, papers that may be needed occasionally, etc. But, the entire box can be stolen so it is less secure than a bank vault. Not a good place if you have say, five pounds of gold to hide. Assess your needs and decide.
That all depends on how the box is rented and how bank accounts are held. My mother and I were joint account holders and when she died nothing at the bank changed at all. I was still able to get to the money and access the box without any IRS intervention. I finally gave them the keys back and stopped renting the box because I never used it. All I needed to do to get her name off of the account was show a copy if the death certificate.
Depends on what you want the box to contain. The boxes are not totally safe from destruction - think 9-11 or Katrina. The Treasury Department will not reimburse you for currency destroyed in a bank box.
That said, safety deposit boxes are very secure. They are surrounded by almost impenetrable concrete and steel and are monitored by sophisticated alarms. The only people who can open the box are you and one other person, plus virtually anybody associated with the government armed with an appropriate warrant; from a deputy sheriff up to the Attorney General of the United States.
The idea of a box is okay for things you may not need immediately but are, nevertheless, valuable. Coin collections or passports come to mind.
Why wouldn't it be legal? Sure, they have made keeping cash on hand as much of a PITA as they possibly can, what with the reporting requirements on any transaction above 'X' dollars, and if the law becomes aware of it, they will assume it is tainted money and try to seize it, and the burden of proof will be on you to try to prove otherwise, and the IRS will try the old 'imputed income' game and try to snatch part of it, even if you already paid all the taxes, and even at today's microscopic interest rates, you are giving up free money by not investing it, but AFAIK it isn't actually illegal.
I'm a simple man with simple tastes. If I were to win the lotto or something, I'd be seriously tempted to take the lump sum and cash it out, stick it in a wall safe, and just live of that and vanish out of the system. Never pay income taxes again. I'd keep a paper trail, of course, because I know they come after people who live like that, but it might be worth paying a lawyer just to grind their noses in it.
He may or may-not have said that in jest. Technically it is true. In fact it rarely happens that way.
You have to trust the bank, and observe their rules.
My niece has a key. When they find me cold, she will open the box, find instructions on what to do with all my stuff. It is often that simple, unless the IRS has a tail on you or some-such.
P
"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."
The feds find out from the mortuary. When a death certificate is filed for anyone past Social Security age it is federal law to send a copy to the government. I know my mom's SS deposits were debited back, prorated to the exact day she died and I never said a word to anyone.
They did not talk to me about the bank tho, probably because it was a joint account that we both used. I did enough to show activity. It is really not a bad way to handle family business. If she wants me to buy something for her, I write the check from the joint account and I she buys something for me I deposit into the account.
Whether you should have one or not depends entirely on what you have to put in it...that's part of your estate and other financial planning exercises...
As to the other posters commenting regarding access after death and the requirement for "the taxman" to inventory and access, that all depends on State law (in your case, NY, obviously).
Typical laws with which I'm familiar have provision for one w/ a testamentary letter to open it for the purposes of locating and/or retrieving a will and access to the other contents (if any) are variable from state to state w/ some very onerous; others "not so much".
OTOH, those that I am aware of (four states in which I have resided and hence have specifically looked) have _NO_ restrictions on access to any content for any reason by others who have pre-recorded access either as co-lessors of the box or designated access on file w/ the institution.
You need to find out what law in NY actually says 'cuz what somebody else says on their experience or hearsay is of no merit if it doesn't reflect the specific laws of your state of residence and for your specific case. The one thing is that the Fed's do _NOT_ get involved (unless, perhaps, the deceased were already under investigation for tax fraud or somesuch but that's conjecture, nothing that I've actually researched).
Be sure to put your next of kin, your executor, or whoever you want to have access, on your safe deposit box account. That way, if you die suddenly or become non compos mentis, they will have immediate access to your box. Otherwise, crucial matters could get stalled for quite a while.
The state finds out first when the department of vital statistics (or whatever it is called in that state) is notified. Info has to be correct because the body cannot be disposed of (buried-cremated) until they verify it.
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