Safe Deposit Box Realities No One Will Tell You 

My Dad ALWAYS told me, no matter what, when, or where, upon my death, go IMMEDIATELY to the bank, show no emotion, clean out the safe deposit box. And always take care of your Mom. He made me a signatory, so it was easy to get access. Showing no emotion was the hardest thing I ever had to do. He was right. Four years later I'm still taking care of Mom. Good luck folks.

My mother was wise enough to have me a cosigner on the safety box. As soon as she had to go into hospice, I cleared that thing out so she could see her favorite jewelry before she died. Then she lived for 2 more years with alzheimer's not able to remember her jewelry.

From my experience, humans get pleasure from making other humans wait. It's all primal, about territoriality and control.

I had a letter of testamentary and the keys , but it still took 4 visits to the bank before they'd let me open the safe deposit box. On one hand maybe they were being careful, on the other hand most likely they didn't know what they were doing .

After my mother died, my father went to the bank to see what was in their joint safe deposit box. When he mentioned his wife's passing to the bank rep, she said she couldn't allow him to view the box without a court order, complicating what had been a simple receipt of joint assets by the surviving spouse. This was in New York and it seemed to be a state law/regulation. If he hadn't mentioned her death, he could have cleaned out the box without any fuss.

Who would have known? We are instructed to keep important documents in a safe place and the last thing you imagine is for the Bank to be such an obstacle. Thank you!

A few days before my father died, I asked him, “Dad, do you have a safe deposit box?” “Yes, I do,” he said, “It’s box #9 at the bank and the key is in the desk.” After dad died, I went to his desk for the SD box key. Problems: there were three keys; none of them was to a box #9, and none of them was in a bank still in existence. So I spent the first few days after his death researching the history of bank mergers & acquisitions in PA just to find the surviving bank where his SD box might be. At length I found it but the manager was out at training all week. It took nearly three weeks just to get the original will and trust documents. Suggestions: Buy and install a safe and make sure your loved ones know the combination.

Just buy ur own fireproof safe and keep things at home. Safe deposit boxes are going out. Too many boxes end up empty. Crooks work in banks as well.

Never use a bank deposit box ever. Buy a big strong safe.

You have to speak with your parents when they’re alive and well. My mother told me where all her important papers were and she put my name on everything, I’m an only child so I didn’t have any problems with that.

Moral of the story: DON'T have a safe deposit box!!!

This is exactly why estate planning lawyers tell their clients NOT to put Wills and trust documents in safe deposit boxes. Put 'em anywhere else, but NOT in a bank safe deposit box!

I’m so sorry to hear such a headache, Thank you for sharing

He must have been talking about . Bank of America. They'll do anything possible . To make your life miserable

You had a court order to open the box, why didn't the judge arrest the bank manager for not obeying the court order

WHO is giving these videos thumbs down !!? Don’t like free advice? What in the cornbread hell, y’all??

Excellent video. Thank you for assisting the public with your honesty and patronage. Your an excellent lawyer.

Wooo. That's a lot of trouble to go through. What if there's only a squeaky toy and a gum wrapper in the box? - imagine finding nothing in the box and still having to pay a lawyers fee. 😂😂😂.

I am pretty sure I lost a pc of gold bar which was kept in a safe deposit box in a bank. There was nothing I could do about my loss!

Thank you Paul for real life cases!

Thank you for posting such informative videos Paul!

Administrators love to make people wait. It's a display of power. We had a very similar situation with a parent who passed and the bank needed the Order from the courthouse. Damn, just keep a key handy. It was real mess between all of the different parties. Thank you for this video.

i heard that in wisconsin as soon as the person dies the bank locks up the box nobody can get it until the state is there . if you have a will done by an attorney he should have a copy .

My first thing would be get a hold of my state representative to give it a kick in the arse...I had a 5 year battle over child support...600 phone calls 3 states attorney generals and one letter to my state rep and I had it all settle within one month and a letter of apology from child services...the letter head gives people a kick in the arse and creates a paper trail.

That's exactly why I bought a LARGE old safe that came out of an old bank. Big enough I can actually get inside of it. Fire proof and nobody is going to be able to steal it. Weight well over a ton and took my back hoe/loader to get it off my flatbed trailer. All my important papers etc are safe and secure and me, my wife, and my grown kids know the combination. I hate lawyers and banks.

Thank You For Sharing 🇺🇸

Thank you for sharing really informative!

Thank you Sir. Well appreciated.

Another thing about safe deposit boxes is the contents are not insured so your valuables are not covered

wow we will need a whole new series on this

Thank you for what you do. Much appreciated.

Thank you very good advice.

THANK YOU for not calling it a safety deposit box!

The problem isn't having a safe deposit box.the problem is the individual dad didn't put on of his children on his bank account and tell his children about and give them a copy of the key.

.....I guess I better head to the bank in the morning. Great information! Thank you

Appreciate this channel. Very interesting. Some things I had already learned the hard way! Especially the advice on wills, etc.

Excellent video.

Got rid of my safe deposit box years ago, when I discovered that whatever is in the bank, belongs to the bank. I have made it as easy as possible for my children to be able to get their inheritance, without having to deal with a third party.

Great info!

Good video-examples help people understand and relate to possible consequences .

Great info. Thank you

Great info! Thanks!

Bankers are not confused: they are grifters.

Your all vedios are very help full god bless you.

My dad and I shared a safety deposit box...in both of our names. He also had a safe at home. I was an active POA. I looked all over for his will in LOGICAL places (safe at home an d bank box) ..I finally found his will .... ..in his sock and underwear drawer. Haha

That is why you buy a safe and keep it at home. If all you store in the safe are documents and vital records then you can just tell them to bite your rear. You just put a moving blanket on it and store in the garage. Most thieves will just look in the house for important stuff not thinking you are dumb enough to keep it in the garage. Then you secure it to the concrete floor. Have you ever seen a thief get a 1000 lbs safe out of a garage with the safe bolted to the floor?

I used to have a safe deposit box at a branch of one of the largest bank in the world. After a year, I cancelled it. I just did not like the look on the faces of those bank clerks, made me very suspicious.

Good Information.

Register your trusted son or daughter in your safety deposit box. Bank usually gave two duplicate keys. Give one of the duplicate to your son or daughter and the other key yours. I trust my son and daughter rather than my husband. I always inform my sin and daughter what is inside the box.

Recently saw another video revealing how crappy the locks on bank boxes are. Some found them emptied out when they came to retrieve their th8ngs

Thanks good advice I don't have a safe-deposit box but I do know cuz my dad died my aunt died and my mom died all in the Last few years and it really isn't easy it's tough because you miss them and the legal process is the way it has to be so I do understand 😞

Really sad situation. 🗽🙏

In New York, even if you are beneficiary to a safe deposit box, you have to go to Surrogates Court and petition to be a Small Estate Administrator or an executor based on the value of what's in the box. It has to be the court in which the person was a legal resident. It took me a week of days and trips to the box over a period of three months to finally get the content (all papers with no monetary value).

not in Texas...lol....once you go back to our district judges, that bank manager / custodian will be ordered to appear and comply-

I was in the bank one day for regular bank business and I smelled a burning smell, saw someone very upset, and a bunch of bank employees running here and there. They apparently had had a fire in the safe deposit boxes. A FIRE!!!! I wonder what the safe deposit box owner lost!

I'd hate to have to deal with stuff like this for my living.

In Oregon you have to own the safe deposit box to get in it even if you have the key. We took the parents to the bank and filled out the paperwork to make both my sister and I owners of the box with my parents. That is where the will, and poa documents are.

I am dealing with the courts in Florida and I have the keys since I am the PR. So far I have only been allowed to take inventory. I have no idea when or how I will get to empty that out and close the account.

Usually the attorney that wrote the will has copy of the will , as far as bank accounts if your getting older & you want your family to have your money thats in the bank set it up as a POD on your accounts ( PAYMENT ON DEATH ) put the names on the accounts that you want to have the money ,you walk into the bank with a copy of the death certificate photo ID & some banks will try to play a game with you about getting the money ,but they have to give you the money on the spot ,bank of the america is the worst they will tell you you need more paper work BS. It could be millions of dollars they have to give to you cut & dry.

My parents and I simply share the box, we each have a key and are signatories, with access to the box.

Bank of America was/is terrible at handling this. I had the same problem 2 tears ago.

Another asset is vehicles. My Dad passed in Jan. & his new truck & nice motorcycle are in his name only, not jointly with my Mom, so we have to wait through probate to be able to sell them. Could be a year we're told. I now know to set up vehicles jointly with a beneficiary listed for quick transfer later.

Let me know how this turns out please.

I don't know and I had a safety deposit box I always made sure I had an extra key and always gave it to someone usually a relative or a close friend

After my mom passed away, we had my dad add my sister to his safe deposit box but not give her a key. That made him feel more comfortable doing it. I was added to the checking account as an authorized signer but no checkbook. The day after he passed away, we had my sister take the key, go to the bank, and empty the box without notifying the bank of his passing. A few days later, my sister closed the now empty safe deposit box. In Florida, if the bank knows of the passing of any of the owners of a safe deposit box, it is sealed (all access denied without a court order). At the bank I worked at, the safe deposit staff would review the obits every day to see if any boxes need to be sealed. Also never store the original will in the safe deposit box. A copy is okay.

And even when you think you've done everything right in legal and proper, the FBI comes in and sees all the damn boxes and you have to file suit on the government to get your stuff back.

It seems to me that there should be a process to store a copy of the will with the government decades before someone dies. We depend on a paper will that might be hard to find and the house might burn down.

I understood that the keys to a safe box at the bank was actually 2 keys, and in order for either you or the bank could open the box, both keys had to be used, it wouldn’t work with just one key !!!!

Add your kids as owners of safe deposit box to safe deposit box title. If you want to. Also to checking account , sav acct to avoid all this headache. Even if you have a key, but you are not on title on safe dep box, we cannot let you in.( bank employee)

Some advice - create a living trust. There's no probate problems. The trustee just follows the trust.

When there was a scratch out or my signature card and the lock to the safe deposit area in my bank was broken and not immediately repaired I decided it was stupid to pay for the box. BTW, the clerk said it was secure because the elevator to that area was locked at night....I suppose any crooks would never think of taking the stairs.

ive had to do this and the box was empty

For us folk over 65 and with only modest assets, a home with a mortgage, couple of vehicles that may or may not be financed, and some savings, what are the best practices for making sure access to checking, savings, and CDs don't get wrapped around a tree when either my spouse of I die?

Having several original ink valid Wills allows multiple parties to hold the Will. A revocable trust while living is also wise, as long as the assets (home, bank accounts, vehicle, etc.) are titled in the name of the Trust - super critical. Often the Will says, anything in the Will is considered part of the Trust. When handing a person an original to safeguard, a letter of instruction on what to do and who is to be contacted legally is stated in a draft Co-written between the attorney and the party being represented. These should be the minimums. Wills alone when there are real money or property assets is not good enough because you can avoid lengthy and expensive probate and heart ache with the more important Revocable Trust. In some situations a non revocable trust is more appropriate. It’s all simple to do while you have your faculties.

"...and the lawyers in the Estate dept. are not real swift ( pause ) in their response time."

Very interesting!!!! How long does it take to resolve a simple trust with no property, just accounts

Paul, thanks for your estate planning videos, they are extremely helpful. Can you tell us how a safe deposit box SHOULD be set up (e.g. titled in my trust's name or my name or jointly with my spouse and my executor?) Easy and quick access without government involvement should be the goal during and after my lifetime. What documents should be in (and not in) my safe deposit box? Should I have original or copies of titles to autos, insurance policies, documents to verify authenticity of valuables like artwork and coins/collectibles? Should my original trust documents be in my box? Do you already have a video covering all this stuff?

So I would love to hear more about people who have no family can they set up a trust can they leave their money to charity.What do seniors with no relatives or people they want to leave money to do in such circumstances. I work in healthcare and I would like to Point a senior client in the right direction he has no family And has no trust or will set up not even a living will.

Yep, went through a similar scenario with my cousin upon his death.

I have been quite angry about the situation and no investigation took place after some relatives out of state California/Texas who visited St. Louis once or twice or and not even yearly comes in steal/unauthorized and or participate to take contents of my Mother’s safe deposit box from the Bank of America In St. Louis after my Mother had started receiving a Class Action Suit Settlement of about $800,000.00 ! Every Dog Has His Day!( My anger is justified)! I’m the Daughter/Heir who has a disabled Brother(Also an Heir) I, who have been doing most of the seeing after/taking care of Mother before she passed away and disabled Brother, while dealing with other issues in My Life!!! But I Thank “GOD” For Blessing Me With The Strength To Endure!!! May “GOD” Bless Us All In A Struggle!!!

I’m skeptical about keeping a safe deposit box at all. You can’t access it outside banking hours and if something happens to the banking system a person could be locked out of it.

Listen i had the same problem, how ever i'm not a pushover and when the bank manager tried to make me get the death certificate i told the bank manger listen we don't need a death certificate, it doesn't matter if my dad is dead or alive the court order specifically says you have to grant me access to the safety deposit box Period, doesn't matter if my Dad is dead or alive you don't need a death certificate, if you refuse to grant me access to this Box, i shall go to the judge who signed this order and have the judge sanction you in contempt of court. Which is what you can do, when a judge signs a court order you must comply with it or you can be held in contempt and be criminally charged this is the entire idea behind a court order.. Don't lest these pinheads try and give you the run around.. Now when i told the bank manager all this he paused for a moment and said hold on, he got on the phone and i assume it was his boss or a lawyer, after he got off the phone he said follow me and led me to the safety deposit box... You can't let these idiots try and pull any BS on you, Failure to comply with a court order can raise serious consequences.. it is written, "If one party ignores a court order or fails to comply with a court order, the other party can file to hold the person in contempt of court. Contempt of court may be either civil or criminal. There are penalties in place for each type of contempt of court. Civil contempt cases usually have sentences that include jail time." Here is the one thing to know, no judge likes to hear that his or her court order was ignored and takes it personally, meaning don't mess with a judge they can get angry and make your life miserable if you piss them off.. So when you got a court order, this is like an order from GOD, no one can stand in your way, if they try they will be sorry let me tell you this.. A court order is very powerful it's use for many things, Police us it for things like a search warrant, or an order for the phone company to allow you access to to wire tapping, or access to some ones medical records, pretty much anything, and yes that includes bank accounts and Safety deposit boxes, That is how the government garnish wages when you owe taxes or child support, it's a court order, they even use court orders to take control of property such as houses boats and vehicles.. Don't let pinheads try and pull and BS on you and make you think they still have a choice, they don't, when a court order is signed, they have no choice but to follow it or there is serious consequences.

My father died in 2020, and of course when I went to the bank to access his safe box…the bank told me I couldn’t because it was this long drawn out process to enter. So I hired my lawyer & currently (2022) I will be able to enter with the documents I have. Hoping they don’t give me a hard time. It’s been a tough road. For I am his ONLY child and I’ve been dealing with it ALL🥺😔

Having obtained a Court Order to open the box, surely you can apply to the Court to issue an endforcement notice that the Sherriff can take to the bank and obtain the box to open. At very least, threaten the Bank with such action with resulting costs being their responsibility. Accepting that Banks and Estate departments just take their time makes me rather sick and I feel that you may not be doing all you can for the poor client , other than mounting you own costs in allowing this to drift on and on.

Note to self, no safe deposit box!

Get a safe and Keep it at home somewhere discreet , forget about the safety deposit box in the bank ,can create to much problems .

minus,,,,,

Seems like, from what you're saying, because of frozen accounts, a mortgage could stop being paid and family could actually lose a house while waiting for this process.

what a nightmare

Leave a copy of your well with your executor of your estate always

A copy of the Will should’ve been filed with the Clerk of Court of the Parish (?)

I have my IRA invested through a financial advisor. I thought I could put it in a trust but, he says that's not possible because it's an IRA. So, the only thing i can do is leave it there and take dispersment until i die and then it will go to the beneficiaries. What if i go in a nursing home and they take the money before i die is there a way/ to avoid this?

That when you open a safety deposit box and insert something into it you have already given the bank the Authority of custodial ship and that should the bank fell everything in that box is in the care custody and control of that bank and those contents are theirs if there is any money in those safety deposit boxes and the bank goes belly-up they will take those funds to pay off their risky debts they have accumulated with your money. I would never ever have a box. And I hope you're well aware that any money in checking's or savings accounts at a bank and the sole custody Care and Control of said Bank. The banks are allowed to have what's called a bail-in and sees all of your assets just sell should they go belly-up and bankrupt. LOL

Can the box be in two different persons?

I went to an estate sale and have a few keys to boxes . What should I do

In California, is specifying a beneficiary in an IRA account sufficient to avoid probate for those funds?

All this could be avoided by a 20 dollar fire box from Walmart that you keep in your closet.

What if we have a safety deposit key but I don’t know where the box is.

This BS my father bank pulled on me. They claim there is no safe deposit box. Yet Corp. Tell me go to his branch . Just the run around, keeping telling if there is no charge on his statement then it doesn't exist. So I had to correct her that the Bank offered safe deposit box for individual in good standing and kept a large monthly balance.

There is a Louisiana law where you can register your will with the Secretary of State.