Bank of Canada Unclaimed Balances (National Institute)

The Bank of Canada
If a bank account in Canada remains unused for over 10 years, and when the Canadian bank cannot contact the owner holding that asset, the Bank of Canada takes over the account, and maintains it on behalf of the owner.

Using the Bank of Canada you can search for any money that has been left in accounts by relatives. If you do manage to find any money there, the website also gives information on how you can claim any outstanding balance.

For example, if your grandfather, Samuel Bull, died in the 1970s, and you wanted to see if he left any money behind, you would simply go to the above website, and search for the name “Samuel Bull”. You’d probably be quite surprised to find the following:

Balances of under $1000 are held for thirty years in addition to the ten years of inactivity before being transferred to the Bank of Canada; balances over $1000 are held for 100 years. At the end of this prescribed custody period, the funds are transferred to the Receiver General of Canada. ___________________________________________________________________________

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