Tracing old Children's Bonus Bonds

figsnprunes

In 1997 my father purchased Children's Bonus Bonds in the names of his five grandchildren. He died earlier this year and my mother has come across the counterfoils issued at the time although not the certificates of investment (yet). In order to try to ascertain whether they were still in existence I put in an enquiry through 'My Lost Account' which came back negative. My mother, who is still very much on the ball and misses nothing, swears that she has no recollection of cashing them in and equally says that they would not have done because the money would have been for the grandchildren. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and been able to get any further in tracing exactly what has happened? I know about the statute of limitations and its implications but the frustration of not being able to prove anything is infuriating.

wmb194

figsnprunes said:

In 1997 my father purchased Children's Bonus Bonds in the names of his five grandchildren. He died earlier this year and my mother has come across the counterfoils issued at the time although not the certificates of investment (yet). In order to try to ascertain whether they were still in existence I put in an enquiry through 'My Lost Account' which came back negative. My mother, who is still very much on the ball and misses nothing, swears that she has no recollection of cashing them in and equally says that they would not have done because the money would have been for the grandchildren. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and been able to get any further in tracing exactly what has happened? I know about the statute of limitations and its implications but the frustration of not being able to prove anything is infuriating.

With which institution? Are these NS&I accounts? Google throws it up as a possibility. If so, have you spoken with NS&I?

According to the linked article they were five year bonds so there is a possibility they matured and the money withdrawn.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/savings/investing/childrens-bonds

figsnprunes

Yes, they were NS&I and they are saying they have no record. but, as I said, my mother has no recollection of cashing them in and the term could be extended after 5 years so that doesn't prove anything. The grandchildren have never had these funds and we are wondering whether there is any way to get further information about the bond status.

Flugelhorn

looking at the info about it appears that they can be cashed in or passed on to another product after the 5 years - appears that they stop adding interest at that stage . Maybe they were just cashed in at the time - if you have the counterfoils and not the certs then that may be the case.  What age would the children have been in 2002?

wmb194

NS&I always used to like to send you certificates and ask for them back when you wanted to redeem them - I vaguely remember one with a redemption form printed on its reverse - so I'd imagine they're long matured and because it was so long ago NS&I won't have kept the records. 

Do you know about other savings and investments for these children and where the monies were sourced? All of these children must be at least 25 by now...

figsnprunes

Thanks for your comments but I think it's going to be a bit of a wild goose chase. My mother insists she would remember cashing them in and insists that all proceeds would go to the grandchildren if they were cashed in - but the grandchildren have never had any money that could be directly attributed to this. I feel though that records should be kept by NS&I and banks etc for much longer because things do get forgotten and tracing these funds becomes nigh on impossible. And who is to say that the government aren't on a nice earner claiming that funds have been paid out when accounts have been dormant for some time when all the time it is appropriated into their coffers?

wmb194

figsnprunes said:

Thanks for your comments but I think it's going to be a bit of a wild goose chase. My mother insists she would remember cashing them in and insists that all proceeds would go to the grandchildren if they were cashed in - but the grandchildren have never had any money that could be directly attributed to this. I feel though that records should be kept by NS&I and banks etc for much longer because things do get forgotten and tracing these funds becomes nigh on impossible. And who is to say that the government aren't on a nice earner claiming that funds have been paid out when accounts have been dormant for some time when all the time it is appropriated into their coffers?

No, this isn't how the government and NS&I operates - see the regular articles where it advertises that many Premium Bond prizes remain unclaimed for years and years but are still available if only someone will step forward... If these were five year accounts then they will have matured and if NS&I doesn't have a current record for any maturity account then I'd suggest the money was withdrawn.

Edit: Could it be that you've been asking after the wrong name? What if the accounts are in the name of the grandchildren? If they haven't already, they could try using the My Lost Account service.

figsnprunes

I tried the grandchildren route with both my daughters and they both got negative results.

My grouse is that if they were cashed in then I believe the record of that should be available for longer. Claims that storage is not available are spurious, digital records can easily be stored for decades. A simple "cashed by xxxx on date xxxxxx paid by cheque/cash/transfer" etc would be sufficient to remove much doubt whereas the "nothing found" comment doesn't fill you with any confidence that it has been investigated with any diligence.

eskbanker

figsnprunes said:

My grouse is that if they were cashed in then I believe the record of that should be available for longer. Claims that storage is not available are spurious, digital records can easily be stored for decades.

Who is claiming that storage is not available?

Organisations storing personal data must do so in compliance with the Data Protection Act, and even though there's no prescriptive standard for retention policies, it's not uncommon for financial institutions and other businesses to delete historical records after, say, six or seven years if there's no ongoing need (from the organisation's perspective) to retain those any longer....

wmb194

figsnprunes said:

I tried the grandchildren route with both my daughters and they both got negative results.

My grouse is that if they were cashed in then I believe the record of that should be available for longer. Claims that storage is not available are spurious, digital records can easily be stored for decades. A simple "cashed by xxxx on date xxxxxx paid by cheque/cash/transfer" etc would be sufficient to remove much doubt whereas the "nothing found" comment doesn't fill you with any confidence that it has been investigated with any diligence.

I know what you mean but you need to think about these things from a business organisation's perspective. In the world of organisations 20 years is an incredibly long time and will very likely include multiple systems changes. It makes life a lot simpler if you don't migrate data for long defunct accounts. 

What's funny is that there have been other threads recently where people have complained that organisations - IIRC HSBC/First Direct - have continued to remember their personal details decades after closing their accounts so apparently there's no winning.

The other side of the coin is that your parents could have done a much better job of keeping track.

figsnprunes

eskbanker said:

figsnprunes said:

My grouse is that if they were cashed in then I believe the record of that should be available for longer. Claims that storage is not available are spurious, digital records can easily be stored for decades.

Who is claiming that storage is not available?

Organisations storing personal data must do so in compliance with the Data Protection Act, and even though there's no prescriptive standard for retention policies, it's not uncommon for financial institutions and other businesses to delete historical records after, say, six or seven years if there's no ongoing need (from the organisation's perspective) to retain those any longer....

I should have qualified that statement - I have been reading other threads claiming that it was due to a lack of storage.