With the festive season well on its way, many people's thoughts turn to gift-giving and what they can afford this year. Let's face it: costs are increasing, and wages aren't keeping pace, meaning the holiday budget may be a bit tighter than usual this year. That is unless you have forgotten money sitting in an unclaimed account somewhere.
How can you find out if you have unclaimed funds? Non-profit BC Unclaimed Property Society offers a free online database where you can search your name for unclaimed money you may not realize you have.
In British Columbia, there's a whopping $178 million in unclaimed funds available to be claimed by the rightful owners. This amount includes an outstanding $1.9 million estate of which the legal heirs are unaware.
This unclaimed money comes from forgotten credit union accounts, unpaid wages, outstanding estates, insurance payments, overpayments to debt collectors, proceeds from courts, pension funds, and real estate deposits.
"The BC Unclaimed Property Society serves as a "lost and found" for forgotten funds in the province," says Sherry MacLennan, the society's executive director. "We put unclaimed money from forgotten accounts back in the hands of the rightful owners. Last year, the society returned $717,209 from inactive accounts to verified claimants who were unaware they had forgotten funds."
Most unclaimed accounts in the society's database amount to between $300 to $500, but some unclaimed accounts can amount to much more. The single largest payout by the BC Unclaimed Property Society was an unclaimed estate worth $1.01 million made in 2019.
“People often lose track of their money for a number of reasons,” explains MacLennan. “They move without leaving a forwarding address, there’s been a missed payment, or they inherited something they didn’t know about.”
If you’re curious as to whether you may have unclaimed money, visit the BC Unclaimed Property Society’s website and click on the Search Online Database tab. Then, enter your name or the name of a family member into the database to find out if you have forgotten funds. It’s that simple.
If you find an unclaimed account in your name, you can claim the funds by completing a simple verification process that firmly establishes your identity as the rightful owner. There are no costs for the society's services, and no time limit to claim forgotten funds.
Companies and organizations holding inactive accounts in B.C. are required to do their best to contact the account owners and let them know about their forgotten money. Still, sometimes these efforts are unsuccessful. If they can’t locate the owners, they are required to transfer these abandoned accounts to the BC Unclaimed Property Society, which actively searches for the legitimate owners of forgotten funds.
An account is deemed to be unclaimed in B.C. when a specified period has transpired with no activity ranging from one to 10 years, depending on the type of account involved.
Last year, the society received more than $4 million in unclaimed funds from the courts, the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia, credit unions, insurance companies, various levels of government, and companies in liquidation to be reunited with the rightful owners. Each year, the Society transfers a portion of unclaimed funds, whose owners can’t be located, to the Vancouver Foundation to support community and social programs in the province.
Maybe you’ll find some missing money this year to help ring in the holidays. You’ll never know until you look. Who knows? You may find enough money to pay all those holiday bills with a little extra cash left over to buy yourself a nice new gift this festive season.
To discover if you have any unclaimed funds, visit unclaimedpropertybc.ca.
