Report suggests ways to reunite Manitobans with forgotten funds

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This article was published 30/01/2021 (2059 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How much money could Manitobans have squirrelled away in accounts, pension funds or insurance policies they’re not aware of?

“When you look at other provinces, there are millions,” said Elizabeth McCandless, director of the Manitoba Law Reform Commission, which is proposing legislation that includes an online searchable database to reunite Manitobans with their forgotten, abandoned and unclaimed property. 

Other provinces have enacted stand-alone legislation that establishes a process for the administration of unclaimed personal property so money can end up in the hands of rightful owners. 

The B.C. Unclaimed Property Society received more than $6 million from holders of unclaimed property in 2018 and returned more than $1.7 million of unclaimed funds to 1,200 rightful owners. Alberta had, as of March of 2018, approximately 225,000 unclaimed items in its property registry, with an estimated value of $82 million.

Manitoba has no such legislation.

Without it, money that could be put to use helping people, benefiting society and fuelling the economy in Manitoba sits idle, the law reform group says. 

On Friday, it released its 92-page report Abandoned Accounts and Missing Money: Establishing a Process for Unclaimed Intangible Personal Property. It makes 20 recommendations for establishing unclaimed property legislation in Manitoba.

It’s calling for broad definitions of the terms “holder” and “property” to allow more Manitobans to benefit from it and the creation of a searchable public online database. The commission recommends limiting the scope of the proposed legislation to intangible, uncontested personal property. 

Account balances, insurance policies, wages owed, and deposits, can and do become abandoned or forgotten, said McCandless.

“You could see situations where people put money in various places — such as a pension fund — and moved on, not aware of its existence.”

Another example is when corporations have dissolved, and any assets that have not been dispersed revert to the Crown and are taken into general revenue. “There’s no process or trigger in law to make anyone aware of the assets dispersed,” or a way for the Crown to easily get that money back to the people who later discover and try to claim it, McCandless said.

Unclaimed balances in banks or trusts are handled under the federal Bank Act, with the Bank of Canada considered the custodian. If an account is dormant for 10 years and the owner cannot be located after repeated attempts, the balance is remitted to the Bank of Canada along with any interest that may have accrued, and any information about the account holder’s identity. The Bank of Canada provides a searchable online database.

Credit unions are different, said McCandless. They aren’t obliged to remit unclaimed accounts to the Crown under Manitoba’s vacant property legislation. Instead, under The Credit Union and Caisses Populaires Act and regulations, credit unions are able — but not obligated — to transfer dormant accounts with $1,000 or less into a special trust fund. The Credit Union Central of Manitoba Ltd., the trade association for credit unions in the province, has guidelines that it recommends to its members but there is no legislation governing the handling of unclaimed credit union accounts. 

The commission began researching the report in 2019, long before the economic squeeze of the COVID-19 pandemic, said McCandless. Its release during critical, code-red pandemic response restrictions in Manitoba is timely, she said.

“We hear a lot in the news about people who are struggling financially, especially with the pandemic,” McCandless said.

“If there is money sitting in accounts not benefiting individuals and if there is a way to establish those entitled to claim it — such as an online database — that could move (those funds) to people who could really use it.”

The report and its recommendations were sent to Justice Minister Cameron Friesen, McCandless said.  A spokeswoman for Friesen said he will review it and comment at a later date. 

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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