Ever dream of receiving an unexpected financial windfall? Well, some quick cash may be closer than you think if you have forgotten funds sitting in an inactive or abandoned account.

In British Columbia, there’s a whopping $178 million in unclaimed funds available to be claimed by the rightful owners. This includes an outstanding $1.9 million estate legal heirs are unaware of.

This money is managed by the not-for-profit BC Unclaimed Property Society, which was established in 2003 by the Province of British Columbia and Vancouver Foundation to administer the province’s unclaimed property program. The Society serves as a "lost and found" for forgotten funds in the province.

“The BC Unclaimed Property Society’s mission is to put unclaimed money from forgotten accounts back in the hands of the rightful owners,” explains Sherry MacLennan, the Society’s Executive Director. “Last year, we returned $717,209 from inactive accounts to verified claimants who were unaware they had forgotten funds.”

The Society maintains a free online database where people can search to see if they have any unclaimed money waiting for them. If someone finds an unclaimed account in their name, they can claim the funds by completing a simple verification process that firmly establishes their identity as the rightful owner. There are no costs for the Society's services, and no time limit to claim forgotten funds.

Most unclaimed accounts in the Society's database amount to between $300 to $500. The single largest unclaimed property payout by the BC Unclaimed Property Society was $1,011,400.98 made in 2019.

Unclaimed property includes forgotten credit union accounts, unpaid wages, outstanding estates, insurance payments, overpayments to debt collectors, proceeds from courts, pension funds, estates, and real estate deposits. In BC, some companies and organizations holding inactive accounts are required to do their best to contact you and let you know about your missing money, but sometimes these efforts are unsuccessful. If they can’t locate the owners, they’re required to transfer these abandoned accounts to the BC Unclaimed Property Society, which actively searches for the legitimate owners. An account is deemed to be unclaimed in BC when a specified period has transpired with no activity ranging from a year 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.

BC is one of four provinces with unclaimed property programs in place, followed by Alberta, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

The BC Unclaimed Property Society is unique compared to other unclaimed property organizations because of its philanthropic component. British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in North America that has designated a not-for-profit society to administer its unclaimed property program where a portion of inactive funds are set aside each year for charitable purposes.

Last year, the Society transferred $6.24 million to Vancouver Foundation to support community and social programs such as the Eastside Culture Crawl Society, Georgia Strait Alliance, Ecotrust Canada, and the Pacific AIDS Network, among others.

For more information go to www.unclaimedpropertybc.ca