» No happy ending:
Bank says account in old passbook doesn’t exist
A Milwaukee couple thought they had a windfall in a longforgotten passbook that showed more than $10,000 in a bank account. What they got instead was a lot of frustration.
In this corner, weighing in with a passbook showing they have $10,038 that’s been sitting in a bank account since 1992, are Taft and Carol Parsons of Milwaukee.
Their opponent across the ring is Associated Bank, which says it can find no record of the account.
This fight has gone many rounds over the past six years, but Taft Parsons says he still hopes to land a knockout blow and get what rightfully belongs to him and his wife.
“If I was president of this bank, I would not have a customer having this problem. It’s too bad he can’t find his own data. I brought in what I needed to bring in to get compensated. He should take care of me,” said the 67-year-old retired engineer.
The bank isn’t budging. In a letter last year to Taft Parsons, customer care specialist AnnMarie Dombrowski said:
“As we have explained previously, Associated Bank has extensively researched the information and documentation you provided. We have been unable to locate any record of your former First Financial Bank (which merged with Associated in 1997) passbook savings account ending in 9585. I apologize that we are unable to assist you any further with this inquiry. We have exhausted all of our research options and consider this matter closed.”
In another 2015 letter to the couple, Dombrowski denied the account was lost and said Associated believes the account was closed by First Financial Bank before the merger. She challenged the couple to produce any documents showing the account existed after that.
If the couple holding the passbook didn’t get the money, as they insist, then who did? The bank is not claiming it turned the funds over to the state of Wisconsin as unclaimed property, as is routinely done when accounts go dormant, and the state has no record of receiving it.
There appears to be a lesson here. Don’t let your money sit around too long in a bank account without paying it a visit now and then. According to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, banking regulations say an account may be considered inactive if the customer initiates no activity for three to five years. Associated said it’s required to maintain bank records for seven years.
In this case, the inactivity was 18 years. According to entries in the passbook, with shows the couple’s names and full 10-digit account number, Taft and Carol Parsons made the opening deposit of $300 on May 26, 1990. In the two years that followed, they made 22 deposits and withdrawals. On June 24, 1992, $10,070 was withdrawn, leaving a balance of $10,038. No entries follow after that, and the passbook is not marked closed.
The passbook was discovered in 2010 in a safety deposit box where it was placed years earlier — and then forgotten — by the couple, who met as young adults working together at the gas company, married 47 years ago and now live near the former Custer High School. They have two children and four grandchildren.
“We noticed we had an account that was still open. You’re happy. It’s like finding 100 bucks in your pocket someplace,” Taft Parsons said.
They brought it to a teller at Associated Bank, who refused to give them the money. Many letters have gone back and forth between the bank and the couple in the ensuing six years. Taft Parsons claims that neither First Financial nor Associated ever contacted him about having an inactive account.
Cliff Bowers, director of public relations at Green Bay-based Associated Bank, said company policy and privacy regulations prevent him from sharing specifics about the bank’s dealings with the couple. He gave me the following statement:
“We can say that we have been interacting with the family on this issue for a number of years, and at all times we’ve been fair, responsive, respectful and comprehensive in our replies to them. Having said that, our position stands as stated to the Parsons. I would add that we have technologies and protocols in place, and have had them in place, that ensures our customers’ money just doesn’t go missing. In this particular case, one can rest assured that we have spent countless company hours and due diligence to ensure that we’ve treated this particular customer fairly.”
Despite knowing he could not answer, I asked Bowers if there’s no record for the account ending in 9585, then what about 9584 or 9586 or any old account from First Financial. If Taft and Carol Parsons are telling the truth as they insist, then it seems their money indeed has gone missing, along with any trace that the account existed, except the passbook itself.
The couple turned to U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, whose office tried to help them. They contacted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which takes citizen complaints about national banks, but that has not led to a solution. The bank should have insurance to cover matters like this, the couple said.
Taft Parsons already has an unrelated lawsuit going against Associated Bank over a townhouse project that went bad, but he’s not inclined to file suit over the bank account. It would drag on, he fears, and his lawyer would get most of the money.
He has, however, gone to the top and written to Philip B. Flynn, president and CEO of Associated Bank. He told Flynn in a letter in September he now thinks he’s the victim of bank fraud.
Flynn has not personally responded.