unclaimed property check

[Anonymous]

Discovered there was some unclaimed property registered in my state. Property owner is my deceased spouse, who passed in 2003. At the time he had a PO box and in the aftermath of his death I overlooked paying the rental fee. Surprised this showed up because most stuff that ended up there (due to the PO box issue) surfaced within a couple of years after his passing. These were stocks, including stocks from a company that spun off the original company a few years ago, and he had stock ownership in the original company in a couple of places besides personally held stock. The total amount is just over $2000.

He had a will, I was the sole heir, and I was the executor. The estate was simple and closed years ago, reopened just once to convey property he had bought on a contract for deed and I paid off.

To satisfy the state, I provided the will, a copy of the letters testamentary, marriage certificate, my SS card and drivers license, death certificate. The check is made out to his estate c/o my name.

So I called the bank, and they said to ask the issuer if they can issue it in my name (no, there is a specific process for claiming the property, and that was not an option). They said to bring in documents showing I am the actual owner of the property. They also mentioned something about opening a trust account and then closing it, which I would think would entail just as much more as the second option.

Wondering if anyone has dealt with this before and how to handle it. Not sure if I can get a letters testamentary without formally re-opening the state. I believe there are state forms that have to do with conveying small assets when the original owner is deceased but don't know much about that.

[Anonymous]

Find a new bank. Your bank is broken.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you’ve already done the hard part — proving you’re the rightful heir — and now the only remaining issue is that the check is made out to the estate, which technically no longer exists because it was closed years ago. This is really common with old unclaimed property.
A few things to know:
Banks generally won’t let you deposit a check made out to an estate unless the estate is open.
They aren’t being difficult — they legally need an active estate account or current Letters Testamentary to accept it.
You usually don’t need to fully reopen the estate for something this small.
Most states have a “small estate” or “collection of personal property” procedure that lets you claim assets under a certain dollar amount without a full probate reopening.
Look up your state’s version of a small estate affidavit.
The unclaimed property office can’t reissue the check in your name because they’re required to pay the legal owner — the estate — not the heir. So the bank is the bottleneck, not the state.
Your options usually look like this:
Use your state’s small estate affidavit to show the bank you’re entitled to the funds
OR reopen the estate briefly, get updated Letters Testamentary, open an estate account, deposit the check, and close it again
OR ask the bank if they will accept the affidavit + the old Letters Testamentary (some will)
You do not need a trust account.
That sounds like a banker trying to improvise. This isn’t a trust situation — it’s simply an estate check.
Given the amount (~$2,000), the small‑estate route is usually the easiest and cheapest. It’s exactly the kind of situation those laws were designed for.

[Anonymous]

There's some good advice on here. There are also some really terrible banks.

"OR ask the bank if they will accept the affidavit + the old Letters Testamentary (some will)"

I get it because I also work in a highly regulated industry, but the fact that you can get different results with different backs means that some are rigid, unworkable clustereffs where people can only follow scripts and nobody can interpret anything, and others actually try to find a solution.

I take my business away from the former and give it to the latter. Unfortunately you don't know until you hit a tricky situation like OPs!

I will say that Wells Fargo has a dismal reputation that it will never recover from, and Citizens Bank is approaching that too.

[Anonymous]

Maybe not the right way, but I just used mobile deposit to deposit a random check that came in for my dad after we had closed his probate. It went through with no issues.

[Anonymous]

I think you do have to open an estate account to get the money, then transfer it to yourself then close that account.

[Anonymous]

You need an estate account to ensure that executor transactions aren't confused with the personal transactions of the executor. However, at this point, with the estate closed, who would be auditing any of the transactions? Is some beneficiary going to come forward for their share of the $2000? Is the IRS going to come looking for estate income tax on $2000?

It would be different if this were $2 million check. It isn't.