Customer withdraws $40k from account to place in safe deposit box. Reason - cannot have a high balance on the account in order to received medicaid, insurance help, etc. Should a SAR be filed?

I suppose you could, but they must be really planning ahead, as Medicaid has a five year lookback period.

We have filed in similar situations when a customer tells us they're taking money from their account to help them qualify for a government program they otherwise wouldn't qualify for.

Regardless of the look-back capability, the customer has copped to intent to defraud. That would trigger a SAR if I were in your place.

I would go with filing a SAR anytime a customer admits to actively scheming like this. Hope it all turned out well.