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Email this11:07 am
April 6, 2013
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BC credit unions are among the organizations required to transfer unclaimed amounts, like dormant accounts, to the BC Unclaimed Property Society.
Their unclaimed property database can be searched for free.
Other sources of unclaimed property are uncashed pay cheques, insurance payouts, and estate distributions.
2:03 pm
February 4, 2017
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Good information. Thanks.
It happens. Wife opened a savings account for a kid. We moved away for a period of time and returned some years later. Opened new accounts at the same bank and was told the kid still had an account worth 2 or 3 K.
They (Cibc I think) had made no attempt to contact us and had we not gone back that money would have been forgotten forever. Wife had some "splainin" to do as she looked after banking, bills, and such. At the time 2+ grand was a lot of money for a young family
3:15 pm
October 17, 2022
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mmlt said
Good information. Thanks.It happens. Wife opened a savings account for a kid. We moved away for a period of time and returned some years later. Opened new accounts at the same bank and was told the kid still had an account worth 2 or 3 K.
They (Cibc I think) had made no attempt to contact us and had we not gone back that money would have been forgotten forever. Wife had some "splainin" to do as she looked after banking, bills, and such. At the time 2+ grand was a lot of money for a young family
Actually, the money would not be lost forever if they did not have it. Since CIBC Is a federally regulated bank, it, along with the rest of the big 5 banks, send all unclaimed balances to the Bank of Canada. And they have a directory full of people on there. You would look up your name to see if there is anything there.
4:48 pm
February 4, 2017
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@HighinterestWinner.
Money would have still existed in the kid's name in a directory but that would not have mattered. We had totally forgotten about it so would never have searched for it.
Interesting enough I found an entry with my first and last names in the database posted.
Another tidbit: Someone with my exact name banked with the same CU chain as I. Yes, there was a mixup.
5:06 pm
April 6, 2013
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The account would have been transferred to Bank of Canada after 10 years dormant. Bank of Canada would hold onto it for 100 years because the balance is over $1,000.
You may not have searched for it. But, your child would have eventually after seeing one of those news articles about dormant accounts.
People do forget and forget not small accounts either. Back in 2017, Bank of Canada said the largest unclaimed balance then was around $800,000! 
6:14 pm
December 12, 2009
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The British Columbia Unclaimed Property Society has been around for several decades now, and their online search tool is just as good, if not better than, the Bank of Canada's Unclaimed Balances tool. B.C. credit unions are one of those types of organizations that are required by B.C. legislation to transfer unclaimed balances or lost funds. I would love to see the provincial and federal governments to require more types of corporations to transfer balances to such organizations. For example, self storage facilities whereby you paid a damage or security deposit, or are otherwise owed a prorated refund on your rent when you move out. Another example is mutual fund dealers. They're not required to, so each mutual fund dealer will typically have a webpage on their own website for how to get in touch about unclaimed balances.
Fun fact regarding the B.C. Unclaimed Property Society, it's actually managed by the Vancouver Foundation. The investment income on the unclaimed balances help to fund its operation, and the B.C. Unclaimed Property Society is permitted by provincial legislation to transfer a portion of long outstanding funds to the Vancouver Foundation if the funds have been outstanding for so long.
Cheers,
Doug
" Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! "
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