Oops, did you ghost your money? Where to find missing cash and accounts

For this week’s No More Ls column, we’re looking at abandoned or lost accounts and how to retrieve them. 

Despite our daily efforts to save, thousands of Canadians leave their hard-earned cash behind every year without realizing it. Things like dormant bank accounts, forgotten deposits, and old financial instruments are eventually moved to the Bank of Canada Unclaimed Balances Registry. Here, the properties sit waiting for their rightful owners. As of December 31, 2025, the central bank held $1.6 billion in unclaimed bank balances. 

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Before you think “What!?” know that forgotten funds do turn up. 

“It doesn’t happen often that people forget about money, but it does happen occasionally. I’ve had clients whose parents had opened up accounts, but the kids didn’t know about them,” says Jason Heath, managing director of Objective Financial Partners, a financial planning firm based in the Toronto area. “And some of the forgotten accounts were fairly significant, like tens of thousands of dollars.”

Here’s how your money ends up at the Bank of Canada

When a bank account or financial instrument has been inactive for 10 years, and the bank can’t locate the owner, the balance gets transferred to the Bank of Canada. Before that happens, federally regulated financial institutions are required under the Bank Act to try to reach the account holder—sending written notices after two, five and nine years of inactivity to warn that the account is dormant and explain how to keep it active or claim the funds.

These funds include chequing and savings accounts, term deposits, guaranteed investment certificates (GICs), bank drafts, certified cheques, money orders, and traveller’s cheques. The Bank of Canada says the most common unclaimed balances are bank deposit accounts and certified cheques. 

The central bank holds these funds in custody on behalf of the rightful owner or their legal representative. The transfer removes the original financial institution’s liability, but this does not impact your right to claim the money.

Unclaimed balances are held for:

• 30 years if the balance is under $1,000
• 100 years if the balance is $1,000 or more

During that time, you—or your heirs—can make a claim for this money. 

The Bank of Canada’s database covers properties held by federally regulated institutions, but it doesn’t include every asset. You won’t find registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), registered retirement income funds (RRIFs), tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), life insurance policies, credit union balances, stocks, dividends and gift cards here.

“This unclaimed list is a starting point, but it will only help somebody find bank accounts, GIC term deposits, things like that,” says Heath. “It doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.”

For example, according to the Bank of Canada, you will need to take a physical certificate directly to your financial institution to cash matured Canada Savings Bonds and Canada Premium Bonds. These properties aren’t searchable online.

Here’s how to search for your unclaimed money

First, visit the Bank of Canada’s Unclaimed Property page. There’s no need to create an account or a complicated password with special characters and numbers. If you’re asked to do that, that just might be a fake website phishing your info.

As Heath points out, accessibility is part of what makes the tool useful. “I think the one really cool thing about it is that anybody can use it. You don’t need much information about somebody to do a quick search.”

You can search for your property by filling out the fields for:

• Last name (or business name)
• City and province (this is optional, but helps narrow down results)
• The dormant bank account number (only if you have it)

Then hit search. If there’s a match, you’ll see your name, the date the funds were transferred, the institution that reported them, the last four digits of your account, the type of property and the amount owed. 

Here’s a helpful tip: Search for your parents, grandparents, great uncles or aunts, or basically anybody whose finances you’ve handled. That’s where people tend to find surprise cash—sometimes a lot of it.

Here’s how to get your money back

Found your name? Lucky you. Here’s what to do next.

You’re only eligible to claim the property if you’re the original account holder, a signing officer for a business, an executor or administrator of an estate or an heir to someone who passed away without a will. An authorized representative—a power of attorney, for example—can also claim on someone else’s behalf.

The website walks you through the claims process, which typically involves submitting identification and some kind of proof that you’re the rightful owner of an old bank account, for example. 

If you don’t have historical bank documents handy, you could try contacting the original financial institution for supporting documents. Processing times vary, depending on the claim’s complexity. 

Remember to be thorough when you submit your materials for a claim. According to Alex Paterson, a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada, some of the most common reasons for denied claims are incomplete applications, missing documentation, and difficulty confirming a claimant’s identity or legal entitlement. 

Got a few minutes to spare?

With well over a billion dollars sitting unclaimed across Canada, it’s worth spending a few minutes to search your name and the names of family members. And do check for elderly relatives or deceased loved ones whose finances you might have helped manage.

This is typically when unclaimed money turns up. 

Often, Heath says people come to the Bank of Canada to claim their money after a loved one has died, or after someone has lost capacity. He adds that in these situations, people often uncover more than expected. “Just accounts here and there, but sometimes with very significant accounts that the kids were unaware of.”

Executors and powers of attorney also have a responsibility to dig deeper, says Heath. “You’ve got a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that you’re not leaving any stones unturned.”

The search might need to go further than the Bank of Canada. Heath points out that other records can help track down missing assets: “You can also find information about different financial accounts using Canada Revenue Agency information,” says Heath. “If somebody’s got a T5 slip for some investment income, there are records you can dig up.”

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. Can you make a Euro summer happen on a student’s budget?  
2. The procrastinator’s guide to spontaneous travel (and not going broke)
3. Mobile florist Vienna Hintze on how to find a job that feeds your soul
4. What’s the best way to draw down my RRSPs over five years?