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Custody Vault vs. a Bank Safe Deposit Box
For a short absence the difference is minor. For a term measured in years it is the difference between property that is still there and property the state has sold.
Consultations with counsel are complimentary. We can meet at the facility or at your office.
Side by side
| Category | Florida Intervault | Bank Safe Deposit Box |
|---|---|---|
| If rent goes unpaid | We contact the named custodian before the term expires; nothing is drilled | Bank may drill the box and surrender contents to the state as unclaimed property |
| Who can access while the renter cannot | Named agents, successor trustees, or a renting entity | Usually nobody without a court order |
| Entity or trust rental | Standard, and it survives the renter being unavailable | Limited, and the underlying bank relationship still applies |
| Term structure | Prepaid annual, with the custodian contacted before expiry | Rolling, and it fails quietly when a payment method lapses |
| Vault rating | 9R — the Federal Reserve standard | Typically B- or C-rated |
| Contents insurance | Lloyd’s of London coverage available separately | None — safe deposit contents are not FDIC insured |
| Intake inventory | Written and signed by both parties | None — the bank does not know what is inside |
| Branch closure | Not applicable — the facility is independent of the banking system | Contents relocated or restricted at the bank’s convenience |
| Response to legal process | We comply with valid subpoenas and court orders, and we say so | Complies, generally with limited challenge |
The fair case
What Bank Safe Deposit Box genuinely does better
For a fiduciary, a bank box has one genuine advantage that is worth stating plainly: it is familiar to a court. Nobody has to explain what a bank is to a judge, a beneficiary or an opposing party. It is also cheap, and if the client already banks there it involves no new relationship, no new counterparty and no new line in a fee schedule anyone will question. For a simple holding with a living, competent, local client, that is often enough.
The failure mode
Where it breaks
It fails on access, and access is the fiduciary's entire problem. A box in a sole name can be sealed on death while the estate opens, so the personal representative waits for authority they were appointed to exercise. Contents are not FDIC insured — that insures deposits, not boxes — and most bank agreements disclaim liability for contents outright. Then there is dormancy: under Florida's unclaimed property regime an inactive box can be drilled and its contents remitted to the state, which is not a theft, not a dispute, and not something a beneficiary can easily unwind.
Our view
The honest verdict
The decisive difference is escheatment. A bank box is a rolling contract that fails silently when nobody pays it, and the failure mode is that the state sells the contents. A prepaid custody arrangement with a named custodian does not have that failure mode.
Other comparisons
Custody Vault vs. Leaving It With Family
This is what most clients do by default. It is free, it is immediate, and it is the arrangement that produces the most litigation afterwards.
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Custody Vault vs. a Self-Storage Unit
Self-storage has the same failure mode as a bank box and a worse one on top of it: Florida lien law lets the facility auction the contents.
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Compare it in person instead.
Tours are private and by appointment. You will see the vault door, the man-trap entry, and the box sizes in person. No account relationship is required to visit.