Sad but true. Another $48 Million gets added to the pile at the Bank of Canada

$48.4M of new (but dormant) money gets added to the big pile of unclaimed money at the Bank of Canada for 2012

 

Short on explanations but the Bank of Canada has updated the page I stalk on a regular basis and this is what it says:  

 ·         The balance at the end of 2012 is $496M from 1.3million accounts

·         The B of C paid out $17.4M to account holders

That’s about it. That’s all it says I am afraid. But this is what I can tell you because I keep notes based on my visits to the site:

·         The balance at the end of 2011 was $465M based on 1.3 million accounts

·         That’s a net increase of $31M

·         If 17.4M was reunited with long lost owners in 2012 then that means ….

·         $48.4M of new unclaimed money (see my note about what this does not include below ).. came into the BoC ? WOW.

Last year by comparison, the Bank paid out 15.8M to owners and the new money came in was $50M . So I have 2 questions:

1)    Isn’t that a lot of money for a Country of 34.6 Million or so???

2)    Am I the only one worried about this?  

A quick note about what Unclaimed funds do not include at the Bank of Canada

Deposits in any currency other than Canadian, RRSP's, Credit Union Accounts, Canada Savings Bonds or the contents of safety deposit boxes . There is no official reporting for these numbers...one can only guess.

But…It’s time to update my chart. Because I like to track this problem.  So a $31M net increase  in the unclaimed fund balance amounts to …a 6.7% increase which according to my records, is just under the net increase from the year prior and..that would be a 55% increase over the past 5 years!?! YIKES...WOW. That's a lot of missing money.

Bank of Canada Unclaimed Funds	Not including Credit Unions or Non CDN deposits
Balance at Dec 2012	1.3 million accounts totaling $496 million ; up 6.7% in 1 year
Balance at Dec 2011	1.3 million accounts totaling $465 million up 7.39% in 1 year
Balance at Dec 2010	1.3 million accounts totaling $433 million up 9.62% in 1 year
Balance at Dec 2009	1.3 million accounts totaling $395 million up 23.44% in 2 years
Balance at Dec 2007	938,000 accounts totaling $320 million
5 Year increase	362,000 accounts totaling $176 million up 55% in 5 years
Balance at Dec 1998	770,000 accounts totaling $132 Million
14 Year increase	530,000 accounts totaling $364 Million up 276% in 14 years
14 Year increase in value %	276%

We see 2 solutions to this problem:

Every province in Canada needs legislation like the US has had for 40+ years to ensure that unclaimed funds are:

a.     Defined, accounted for and reported on by any organization that holds such financial assets. Consumers deserve more transparent reporting by way of easily accessible and available search bases. We have the technology. Let it be utilized!

b.    Forwarded to a provincially regulated agency for safekeeping who will also be charged with proactively looking for the owners of such funds

And:

Individuals and families need a way to safely and simply track, monitor and share important financial and legal informaiton and documents in a single, secure place to reduce the risk of loss. The good news is that Legacy Tracker was designed to do just that and a lot more. Learn more! Take a view of our 2 minute explainer video noted at the top of the page.

 

.