Treasury reclamation answered on time, with every withdrawer named and the bank paying only what it owes
Every reclamation answered on time, and the bank pays only what it owes.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Treasury Reclamation is software for a bank's deposit operations team that answers each treasury reclamation: the Notice of Reclamation the Bureau of the Fiscal Service sends under 31 CFR Part 210 for federal benefit payments made after a customer's death. Six agents read the notice, split the account at the date of death, name everyone who withdrew, find the earliest notice of death and compute the bank's limited liability. A specialist approves and a second person checks before the account is debited and Treasury is answered.
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A treasury reclamation starts when a customer who received Social Security, VA, federal retirement or railroad benefits by direct deposit dies: the payments that keep arriving are not owed. Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service sends the bank a Notice of Reclamation under 31 CFR Part 210. The bank has 60 calendar days to answer: it certifies the date it first knew of the death and the balance when the notice arrived, and gives the name, last known address and phone of everyone who could withdraw and everyone who did. Answered fully and on time, with no earlier knowledge, its liability is limited to that balance. Miss the deadline, and Treasury debits the full amount from the bank's Federal Reserve account.
Today a specialist prints months of account history, asks the card team who holds the card used at the ATM and the branch for the teller's record of a transfer, checks the core for a deceased flag, adds it up and types the response. The knowledge that matters sits in systems the reclamation desk does not search: a death certificate scanned at a branch or a call to the contact center counts as notice of death, and certifying the later Death Notification Entry instead is an inaccurate response. A missed notice, an unflagged call or a missing withdrawer turns a limited liability into the full amount.
Estimated split for one Notice of Reclamation, by hand and with the solution: about 40 minutes by hand, about 6 to review, approve and check.
Six agents read the notice, split the account at the date of death, find the earliest notice and compute the limit; two people sign.
At Corvane National Bank, Treasury reclaims four Social Security payments of $1,912.00 from Theodora L. Ashgrove's Everyday Checking ••6620, credited after her death on Thu May 14, 2026. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Notice of Reclamation 26-SSA-0738215, dated Mon Oct 12, arrives through the Treasury reclamation portal: $7,648.00 outstanding. The Notice agent reads it, matches the account and starts the 60-day clock, so the response is due Fri Dec 11. That afternoon the account-owner notice 31 CFR 210.13 requires goes to the Estate of Theodora L. Ashgrove with a copy of the government's notice, prepared by Joelle Marchand at 3:58 p.m. and checked by Tobias Ekwueme at 4:30 p.m.
Never on a customer letter: agent confidence and internal notes, other withdrawers' names, any fraud referral or whether a suspicious activity report exists, a full SSN or date of birth.
Joelle's desk holds 286 open notices in four buckets: 198 in days 1 to 15, 61 in days 16 to 30, 20 in days 31 to 44, and 7 at day 45 or later, already with the manager. Overnight the agents read 80 arrivals, named 112 withdrawers and re-added 67 ledgers, all 67 agreeing to the cent. Each notice is one sentence the agents wrote, such as the Ashgrove notice with $2,317.40 to return.
Nothing is returned or answered until a specialist approves and a checker signs.
The ledger runs from Thu May 14, with $1,183.30 carried in, to today. The four reclaimed payments sit on the left; on the right, every withdrawal with who made it and the channel: seven ATM withdrawals on card ••0915, a branch transfer under a power of attorney, and eight automatic payments grouped. On top: $7,648.00 reclaimed, a $2,317.40 balance when the notice arrived, and the bank's liability of $2,317.40 if it answers by Fri Dec 11, with the clock on day 7 of 60.
The 45-day line runs at Sun Jun 28: only the Jun 10 payment, $1,912.00, falls inside it.
Joelle clicks the Jun 10 payment and its ACH batch headers open from the payments hub: company SSA TREAS 310, $1,912.00. Credits of the same amount arrived on Jul 8, Aug 12 and Sep 9. The May 13 credit, for April, came before the death, and no October credit arrived. Opening a source is recorded on the audit trail.
Martin J. Ashgrove, her son and authorized signer, made 7 ATM withdrawals with card ••0915, $3,100.00 in all. Ruben A. Castell, her nephew, moved $2,230.60 to his own savings at the branch on Sep 22, under a power of attorney that ended at her death. Two payment originators took 8 automatic payments, $1,183.30. The names, last known addresses and phones come from the card processor, the teller journal and the ACH originators, never from a guess.
The Ledger agent never names a withdrawer below 0.98 confidence.
The Liability agent searches seven channels for the earliest notice of death. A call center note from Wed Sep 23, 2:41 p.m., when Martin said his mother had died in May, is earlier than the Death Notification Entry of Thu Oct 8. Nothing was credited or withdrawn after Sep 23, so the limit holds and the bank certifies Sep 23. Under 31 CFR 210.11 it returns the lesser of the $2,317.40 balance and the $7,648.00 reclaimed; Treasury collects the other $5,330.60 from the withdrawers.
Pays now $2,317.40 · at most $4,229.40 · by default $7,648.00.
Joelle asks whether the bank could owe more later. Only if Treasury cannot collect the $5,330.60 from the withdrawers, the agents answer, and even then at most the payment received within 45 days of the death, $1,912.00, cited to 31 CFR 210.11(a). If a Request for Debit arrives, the Recovery agent files that against the estate account ••8804.
The Response agent fills the response to Notice 26-SSA-0738215: no knowledge when the payments were credited or withdrawn, first known September 23, 2026 by a telephone call from the authorized signer, $2,317.40 returned, and a persons table naming the recipient, Martin J. Ashgrove, Ruben A. Castell and the two originators. Joelle approves the return and the response as maker at 9:14 a.m., and it goes to the checker.
No internal notes, agent confidence or fraud referral appear on the form.
Tobias compares Joelle's response with the Checker agent's independent re-add from the raw journal: $7,648.00 in, $6,513.90 withdrawn, $2,317.40 balance, difference $0.00. He signs at 9:21 a.m. The account is debited, the entry is booked to the general ledger, and the response is submitted through the Treasury reclamation portal on day 7 of 60, keeping $3,418.60 or more from a default.
The maker cannot sign her own response, and returning it needs a reason code and a note.
The trail shows the Checker agent's re-add at 6:12 a.m., the Liability agent moving the knowledge date from Oct 8 to Sep 23, Joelle's approval at 9:14 a.m. and Tobias's signature at 9:21 a.m., each with who, what, when, why and the evidence. One click builds the export pack for examiners and Treasury, with SSNs masked. Records are kept five years.
The same notice, seen by the four people it passes through: what their day looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents read the notice, split the account at the date of death, find the earliest notice and compute the limit; two people sign.
Reads every Notice of Reclamation, Death Notification Entry and Request for Debit from the Treasury reclamation portal, document imaging and the core, matches the account and starts the 60-day clock from the notice date.
Splits the account at the date of death, classifies each debit by channel and names each withdrawer from the card owner, the teller presenter or the ACH originator.
Searches seven channels for the earliest notice of death, decides whether the limit holds, and computes what the bank owes now, at most later, and by default under 31 CFR 210.11.
Re-adds the ledger from the raw posting journal and the card settlement file without seeing the first result, and confirms the withdrawers. It runs on a different model family on purpose.
Drafts the response with every certification, the account-owner notice, the account debit and the ledger entry, and submits after both signatures.
Returns benefit payments with R15 once a death is known, watches for a Request for Debit, drafts a claim against the estate and letters to withdrawers.
Approves; a second person checks. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any notice, payment, withdrawer, deadline or rule, or say what to prepare. Every answer cites the ledger, the source system or the rule.
Why not the whole $7,648.00?
The bank had no knowledge of the death when the four payments were credited or withdrawn, so its liability is limited to the lesser of the balance when the notice arrived, $2,317.40, or the outstanding total. Treasury collects the other $5,330.60 from the people named as withdrawers.
Who used card ••0915?
The card processor shows card ••0915 issued on Mar 2, 2023 to Martin J. Ashgrove, the authorized signer. All 7 ATM withdrawals, $3,100.00, came one or two days after a benefit payment. I lit them on the ledger.
Could the bank owe more later?
Only if Treasury cannot collect the $5,330.60 from the withdrawers. Then the bank owes at most the payments received within 45 days of the death: the Jun 10 payment, $1,912.00. The Recovery agent will file that against the estate account ••8804 if a Request for Debit arrives.
Was the power of attorney still valid?
No. A power of attorney ends at the principal's death, so Ruben A. Castell's transfer of $2,230.60 on Sep 22 was made without authority, though the teller could not have known. He is named as a withdrawer.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The clocks, limits and protections every notice runs on are settings, each change a new version with who, when and why.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Response deadline | 60 calendar days from the notice date | Set by the Green Book, Chapter 5 |
| Response target | Day 10 | Day 5 · Day 10 · Day 15 |
| Escalate to the manager | Day 45 | Day 40 · Day 45 · Day 50 |
| Manager approval | Returns over $10,000, and every full-liability response | $5,000 · $10,000 · $25,000 |
| Reasonable opportunity | Balance taken at receipt, held one business day | Locked on (31 CFR 210.11(a)) |
| Bulk R15 returns | Still need a checker, as one step | Locked on |
| Retention | Five years from the response, as for BSA records | 5 years · 7 years |
| SAR confidentiality | No reclamation screen, letter or export shows whether a SAR exists | Locked on |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample notices and accounts · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate of a notice worked by hand and with the solution · “typical” = published rules (31 CFR Part 210, Subpart B, §§210.10 and 210.11: the 45-day window, the one-business-day hold and the 120-day limit; the Bureau of the Fiscal Service Green Book, Chapter 5: the 60-day response; the Nacha Operating Rules on R15 and R14 returns). People, banks, accounts, cards, notices and addresses named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Treasury Reclamation is software for a bank's deposit operations team that answers each treasury reclamation: the Notice of Reclamation the Bureau of the Fiscal Service sends under 31 CFR Part 210 for federal benefit payments made after a customer's death. Six agents read the notice, split the account at the date of death, name everyone who withdrew, find the earliest notice of death and compute the bank's limited liability. A specialist approves and a second person checks before the account is debited and Treasury is answered.
The bank has 60 calendar days from the notice date to answer. It certifies the date it first knew of the death and the balance when the notice arrived, names every owner, everyone authorized to withdraw and everyone who withdrew, and returns what it owes. Here the Notice agent starts that clock on arrival, the desk places every notice against its 60 days, and an open notice goes to the Deposit Operations Manager on day 45.
The Liability agent applies 31 CFR 210.11 line by line: the lesser of the balance when the notice arrived, held one business day, and the outstanding total. It also shows the most the bank could owe later, the payments received within 45 days of the death, and what it would owe if the deadline were missed. On the sample notice that is $2,317.40 now, at most $4,229.40, and $7,648.00 if late.
A bank that knew of the death by any means owes in full any payment credited or withdrawn after that date. The Liability agent searches seven channels, from call center notes and branch document imaging to returned mail and R15 or R14 returns, and certifies the earliest. If anything moved after that date, the case goes to the manager as full liability.
The agency must reclaim within 120 calendar days of its own knowledge of the death (31 CFR 210.10(d)). The agents compare the agency's death entry with the notice date and raise an escalation with a protest drafted; in the sample, a notice dated 276 days after the entry. The Deposit Operations Manager decides and signs the protest.
Yes. The agents watch every Death Notification Entry, branch death certificate and call note. Once a death is known they place a deceased hold and propose returning the next benefit payment with the R15 return code, which also tells the agency. Returns are approved in bulk, with one checker step that cannot be switched off.
Yes. The agents never send, debit or return anything, never decide full liability and never certify a withdrawer as unidentified. A Reclamation Specialist approves as maker and a Reclamation Checker signs, and the maker can never check her own response. The Deposit Operations Manager decides full liability, returns over $10,000, protests and notices that reach day 45, and every override needs a reason code and a note.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents, such as your reclamation procedures, response templates and a sample of past notices, and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own notices first.
Every exception hold applied the same way, with the right dates on the notice.
1-min demoPower of Attorney AcceptanceA cited acceptance decision in minutes, never past the state deadline.
1-min demoFBO ReconciliationEvery end user's balance tied to the FBO account by 10 am, with the proof for examiners.
1-min demoWe'll run Treasury Reclamation on a sample of your own past Notices of Reclamation.