Unclaimed Property Laws in Canada

Unclaimed Property Laws in Canada

While the majority of unclaimed money held by the governments can always be claimed by the rightful owners there are some places where this is not always the case.

One such place is in Canada the unclaimed property office known a The Bank of Canada holds unclaimed balances of less than $1,000 for thirty years. The unclaimed balances are transferred to them by financial institutions after they have remained unclaimed for 10 years. As such, if you have a unclaimed balance in a bank account you forgotten that is less then $1,000, you have 30 years to make a claim for it once it got transferred to the Bank of Canada. Balances are transferred to the Bank of Canada once a year, on 31 December. Anything more than $1,000 claims can be made at any time. The time frame does not expire. Once the 30 years are up and the balance in the unclaimed account is less that $1,000, the unclaimed money goes directly to the General account for Receiver General for Canada, which can amount to millions of dollars after 30 years. The previous amount was $500 but was then changed the the new amount of $1,000

Approximately 1.3 million unclaimed balances, worth about $496 million, were transfered to the Bank of Canada in 2012. Of that, 93% of unclaimed balances were under $1,000.00

In 2012, the Bank of Canada paid $17.4 million to the unclaimed account holders.

Awesome Video of 100's of Dolpins playing in the wild

While traveling through the Pearl Island of Panama this month, we can across a school of dolphins consisting of well over 100 just playing and swimming along the ferry. 

This was quite an amazing site to see.

Panama Tourism Board

Palonek Reminds Individuals And Companies To Check State And Local Unclaimed Property Records For Money That They May Have Forgotten Or Not Known About

Each State has their own unclaimed property rules on what is classified as unclaimed money, when it actually becomes unclaimed and what must be done with these assets by the holders of them. Once the unclaimed assets are handed over the State Comptroller offices they now become custodian of this abandoned property and they are responsible to safe guard the unclaimed property until its rightful owner(s) comes forward. This new found money is used by each state to help pay their ongoing operating expenses, which helps in keeping tax increases to a minimum.

The various state offices seem to changing the rules constantly on when abandoned cash, assets, property and other items must be handed over to them. These types of laws have added millions to each State’s General Operating Funds”, say Edward Palonek, founder of Foundmoney.com who has been helping individuals and companies locate such unclaimed property since 1995.

Police departments are also cashing in on unclaimed property, literally. They have set up auction websites to sell off items that have become unclaimed. For example, Baltimore County Police Department utilizes the outside auction websites to auction off all of their abandoned, stolen, lawfully seized, or unclaimed property of every kind and description, remaining unclaimed for 30 days or more. This is an ongoing auction available 24 hour a day, 7 days a week and some of the items being auctioned include electronics, jewelry, clothing, bicycles, tools, sporting equipment.

“It’s never too late to make a claim, and State offices are committed to ensuring that hardworking Americans don’t lose a penny. They are holding unto the unclaimed funds until the rightful owners make a claim to this new found money of theirs”, says Palonek

Foundmoney at www.foundmoney.com