It was a certified cheque. That means the bank has guaranteed that the cheque will clear no matter what. If it were invalidated, the cheque would not clear, violating the guarantee. Cancelling the cheque would call all future guarantees into question.
Given that, the bank was quite willing to issue another cheque. However, they asked that the retiree indemnify the bank for the original cheque should it also get cashed in the future. In other words, if both cheques were cashed, seeing $600k paid out in total, the retiree would be required to pay back $300k of it. The retiree refused.
Why was that a certified cheque though? That’s literally like sending 300k in cash… by mail.
I typically see those used like when buying a car off Kijiji or Facebook where you can’t really trust a random person’s check to go through or trust the seller to give you the car when the cheque goes through. Hand over a certified cheque, you’re safe to deposit it and hand over the keys.
I don’t see how that kind of guarantee was needed to deposit an inheritance cheque. There’s plenty of legal ways to approach this if it bounces or whatever.
If it was ever cashed they were on the hook, sure probably no one would be stupid enough to try and put their name on it - but the retiree reasonably didn’t want to imagine the risk given all the trauma
Most 401k’s will mail checks when people want to roll funds over. Sometimes to the receiving companies, sometimes directly to the client. They won’t even overnight it or put a tracking number on it either. Just snail mail hope it shows up some day.
Could they not have just sent another cheque? It’s not like the actual money was in that envelope.
It was a certified cheque. That means the bank has guaranteed that the cheque will clear no matter what. If it were invalidated, the cheque would not clear, violating the guarantee. Cancelling the cheque would call all future guarantees into question.
Given that, the bank was quite willing to issue another cheque. However, they asked that the retiree indemnify the bank for the original cheque should it also get cashed in the future. In other words, if both cheques were cashed, seeing $600k paid out in total, the retiree would be required to pay back $300k of it. The retiree refused.
Ahh, see, this is the kind of thing I figured I was missing. Thanks for the context!
Why was that a certified cheque though? That’s literally like sending 300k in cash… by mail.
I typically see those used like when buying a car off Kijiji or Facebook where you can’t really trust a random person’s check to go through or trust the seller to give you the car when the cheque goes through. Hand over a certified cheque, you’re safe to deposit it and hand over the keys.
I don’t see how that kind of guarantee was needed to deposit an inheritance cheque. There’s plenty of legal ways to approach this if it bounces or whatever.
If it was ever cashed they were on the hook, sure probably no one would be stupid enough to try and put their name on it - but the retiree reasonably didn’t want to imagine the risk given all the trauma
Why send a check at all? Why wasn’t the money wired?
Most 401k’s will mail checks when people want to roll funds over. Sometimes to the receiving companies, sometimes directly to the client. They won’t even overnight it or put a tracking number on it either. Just snail mail hope it shows up some day.
Not the case:
Convention
I’m guessing your answer to that lies in the word “retiree”.