Topic: Safety Deposit Boxes
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We rented a safe deposit box to a customer who is now deceased. The customer’s spouse provided us with a death certificate and a small estate affidavit that was used to sell the customer’s vehicle. Is this documentation sufficient for us to provide the spouse with access to the box?
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Yes, we believe that a small estate affidavit is sufficient documentation for the spouse to access the safe deposit box. The Illinois Probate Act requires financial institutions to grant access to safe deposit boxes in accordance with a valid small estate affidavit. The Safety Deposit Box Opening Act requires financial institutions to allow a person…
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We have a policy of not allowing customers to store firearms in safe deposit boxes, and a customer recently questioned this policy. Does Illinois law require us to store firearms in safe deposit boxes?
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No, we are unaware of any Illinois law requiring financial institutions to store firearms in safe deposit boxes, and we believe you may prohibit the storage of firearms by policy and the terms of your safe deposit box account agreement. Additionally, the Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act allows private property owners to prohibit firearms on…
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Two deceased customers had been leasing a safe deposit box, and their daughter has requested access to the box. However, she is not a signer for the safe deposit box and does not have a copy of a will or documentation appointing her as executor for her parents’ estates. Is a small estate affidavit sufficient for her to access the safe deposit box and close the box?
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Yes, we believe that a small estate affidavit would be sufficient for the daughter to access the safe deposit box and close the box. The Illinois Probate Act requires financial institutions to grant access to safe deposit boxes in accordance with a valid small estate affidavit. The Safety Deposit Box Opening Act requires financial institutions…
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We have a safe deposit box that has been unpaid for the last five years, and we are preparing to drill the box and remit the contents to the Illinois Treasurer as unclaimed property. However, we learned that the sole owner of the safe deposit box is on active duty military service. Would this customer fall under the protection of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)?
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We do not believe that the SCRA would prevent your bank from fulfilling its obligation to remit abandoned property in a safe deposit box to the Illinois Treasurer in accordance with the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (Illinois RUUPA). While the SCRA would prevent the foreclosure or enforcement of a lien on items contained…
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We are a state bank and are creating a pandemic disaster recovery guide for our retail department. Is it mandatory for us to make safe deposit box entry available, and must we provide mailed ten-day certificate of deposit (CD) renewal notices? Are there any guidelines for reducing our typical services to a minimum?
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Generally, your obligations to your safe deposit box customers will be dictated by the terms of your safe deposit box rental agreements, and Regulation DD dictates the disclosures you must provide to consumers with CD accounts. However, in the event of a viral pandemic, your bank’s ability to provide certain services or to comply with…
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One of our branches offers self-service storage boxes located in the branch lobby. We do not keep duplicate keys for the boxes, nor do we monitor or record who accesses the boxes, and we do not require ID before customers access their boxes. The lease agreement for the boxes clearly states that they are not safe deposit boxes and do not have the same protections as safe deposit boxes. A recent webinar stated that these types of boxes are very risky but did not provide further details. We have identified that the boxes may pose an insurance risk, and we plan to discuss this with our insurance provider. Are there any other risks we may be overlooking with respect to these boxes? Would a court treat these boxes as safe deposit boxes?
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In our view, self-service storage boxes may expose your bank to the risk of losses due to unauthorized entry of the boxes and theft of the contents. Additionally, we believe that your bank’s risk exposure depends on the language of your rental agreement and other factors (such as insurance coverage) — not whether the boxes…
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Does Illinois law require all individuals who view the contents of a safe deposit box to sign the access card? For example, if a safe deposit box owner brought their child into the viewing room, would the child need to sign the access card? Or, if joint safe deposit box owners view the contents together, do both need to sign the access card?
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We are not aware of any Illinois law that requires individuals who view the contents of a safe deposit box to sign an access card. However, with respect to a person who is not an authorized signer viewing the contents of a safe deposit box, we believe the person should be logged by the bank…
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One of our customers recently passed away, and his son is successor trustee for the customer’s personal trust. The deceased customer held a lease on two safe deposit boxes individually, not in the name of the trustee. The trust document does not mention safe deposit boxes. Can the son access the box as trustee of his dad’s trust, and what documents do we need?
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Yes, we believe that the son may access the safe deposit boxes, provided that the trust document includes generic language covering the contents of the safe deposit boxes and the son can provide a will naming the son as executor of his father’s estate. Your bank may wish to request a Certification of Trust form…
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A husband and wife who held a safety deposit box at the bank recently died. Their children would like to open the box, which they think will contain several CDs that are in the name of the children, not the parents. They also think the box might contain a will. The parents did have three CDs issued by our bank in their children’s names. Can the children open the box and remove the CDs? Two of the CDs mature this week, and they don’t want them to automatically rollover.
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The children may open their parents’ safety deposit box if they present your bank with an “opening affidavit,” but we do not recommend allowing them to remove the CDs from the box until they present your bank with letters of office, another court order, or a small estate affidavit (if applicable). The Illinois Safety Deposit…