Trust Fund lost when parents went bankrupt 1996

CLONNEN

I had some sort of Child Trust Fund that my grandmother set up when I was born in 1979. It matured when I reached the age of 16 in 1995.

A bloke from the bank (don't know which bank) came to our house the week after my birthday and talked my parents into reinvesting the money into something (another Trust Fund?) I couldn't touch until the age of 21. I was asked to sign my signature on three pieces of paper (all one form I think) but wasn't allowed to read any of it through myself. Mine was the only signature on the paperwork. Does that mean I am the sole account holder or would my parents have been trustees on this account?

In 1996 when i was 17 my parents decided to go bankrupt and all their bank accounts were taken away from them. My money in the Trust Fund was also seized as they said my parents names were on the account and that they could take it even though my name was on it. Their signatures were not anywhere on the paperwork so I don't know why this is. Are there trustees on accounts for over 16s?

Should my money have been taken? Other posts on this forum seem to indicate that if an account is in the child's name it doesn't get seized - have the rules changed since 1997?

When I tried to apply for a bank account I got refused on the grounds I had a bankruptcy against me. I have never been on my parents bankruptcy but my mother does have the same initial as me. When we pointed this out to the credit agencies it got amended and I managed to get an account for my wages to be paid into.

Could the inital thing also be the reason I lost my trust fund money?

miss_spooky

Hi ya,

It may be worth posting this on the savings & investments board if you don't get any replies on here.

Hope you get the answers you are after.

Annisele

Unfortunately I think that something like this would be very difficult to pursue.

In principle - your parents' bankruptcy should not have affected any savings in your name. If the money was yours, then it shouldn't have been taken from you. I suspect that sharing your mother's initial wouldn't have helped matters.

However, you haven't done anything about it for a very long time. If you don't even know which bank it was, and you're not sure exactly what the investment was or whose name it was in, you're going to have an uphill struggle. Banks don't keep information about closed accounts forever, so even if you did work out which bank it was you might find they didn't have / told you they couldn't find their records.

As a first step, you could try doing a search at my lost account - on the offchance that your money was never 'lost' at all, but you just lost touch with the bank.

You could also try talking to your parents, and seeing if they remember more about which bank it was.

bat-out-of-hell

Sigh, was hoping debtinfo would reply to this, as he may know if the if the changes since then made any differance, but it seems i have to stick my neck out and hope i am right.

If the trustee IP or OR took funds for a BR estate by mistake, as they where not an asset of the BR in question, time is irrelavent, the OP has a legal right to retrieve said assett.

My only suggestion for now is to contact the OR's office that dealt with your parants BR, you may be met with a brick wall, but you may get the help to get to the bottem of this, but its the logical place to start.

Unless Debtinfo has any other suggestions/views?

debtinfo

I would agree with bat. I dont think that the rules on this have changed, If the parents were simply a trustee at the time then the money should not have been taken.

It is very difficult to give an answer with virtually no info to go on.

For instance, what if the parents were the account holders at the time, then it could be taken

What if they had been account holders originally and when the OP signed the documents the parents were transfering it to her, then the OR could recover it as a transaction at under value

As another poster said, many people dont understand bankruptcy and the parents thought it was taken but it wasnt, maybe just frozen because there names were on as trustees (halifax still do this now), maybe it is still out there or has been lost

If it is exactly as described and the money was the OP's and it was taken then it was taken by mistake.

What can be done
The files are kept for only 7 years after the bankruptcy, but i believe the closing statement (what you get when they release as trustee) are usually kept for longer, I remember my office at the time had several boxes of these going back 20 or more years, This should have all assets that have been realised on it, its a long shot but definitly worth a phone call

If they didnt take it then its off to the bank

CLONNEN

Have talked to my mother about this and she thinks it might have been Abbey National the bloke was from. But she isn't sure because they also had accounts with Lloyds and Barclays at the time.

She says they never signed anything for this account that it was in my sole name. They signed for the maturity of the old account but nothing for the newer one because the bloke said they couldn't as I was 16. No idea what the account was actually called though - if it was a trust fund or something else.

Is it worth popping into Santander and asking about this?

debtinfo

Everything is worth a try

LilacPixie

there is a website run by the BBA or something that traces dormant bank accounts. Maybe worth a look to see if they find anything. TBH the signing at 16 for maturity at 21 sounds like some sort of 5 year bond.

CLONNEN

I already did the mylostaccount website earlier this year and the only account found for me was a National Savings account with 7p in it.

My father remembers my trust fund account being on the list of accounts that were taken by the OR and arguing about it at the time. They said it wasn't a "child designated" account despite being in my name (these are under 16s only) nor was it an "adult" account (over 18s only) and that it was an asset of my parents because under eighteens cannot hold assets in their own name - therefore thay took it.

CLONNEN

Something I have just thought of. Payments went into this account by monthly standing order from my grandmothers Natwest bank account and I don't think she ever had to change the payment details even when it changed at age 16.

Does this mean it kept the same sort code and account number even after I was 16? So when the bloke from the bank said "reinvestment" did he mean it was a 5 year continuation of the same account we had before and that only the signature on it changed.

Would my parents names have been removed from the account at age 16 when it changed to my signature only or would they have still come up on the bank system as being linked to it (which if what the OR always claimed at the time).

fiveyearplan

Going on your father's memories of the event it would seem the OR took the money. I think I would start there. Do your parents have any records of their bankruptcy?

Not that it will do you any good now, but this is one of the main reasons I always suggest people take there names off their children's accounts. My children have had accounts in their own names since they were about 5 or 6 and I have never even been a signatory on them.

Maybe you could also check with NatWest and see if they have any information. I take it your grandmother is no longer alive?