Bank of Canada unclaimed balances: find money from an estate

There are billions of dollars in unclaimed balances sitting at the Bank of Canada right now. Some of it belongs to families settling estates who do not know it exists. If you are handling a loved one's affairs, here is how the unclaimed balances system works, how to search it, and, importantly, what it does not cover.

How an account ends up at the Bank of Canada

It starts with dormancy. When a federally regulated bank account has no activity and no owner contact for years, the bank treats it as dormant. The timeline:

• Year 9 of inactivity: the bank sends a dormancy notice, telling the account holder the balance will be transferred.
• Year 10 of inactivity: the balance is transferred to the Bank of Canada's Unclaimed Properties Office. The bank no longer holds it.
• Once at the Bank of Canada: balances under $1,000 are held for 30 years. Balances of $1,000 or more are held for 100 years.

Sources: Bank of Canada Unclaimed Properties Office; Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Current as of October 2026.

How to search

The registry is free to search at unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca, by name of the account holder. If you find a balance belonging to a deceased family member, you can claim it as the estate representative with proof: the death certificate, proof of your authority as executor or administrator, and identification. There is no fee to search or claim.

If you are settling an estate, search the deceased's name there. It takes five minutes and it is free.

What the registry misses, the part that matters for estates

The registry only holds dormant accounts from federally regulated banks and trust companies, and only after 10 years of inactivity. For a recent death, and for most estates, it is the last place money shows up, not the first. It does not include:

• Accounts that are still active at the bank, the common case in a recent death
• Registered accounts: RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs and workplace pensions
• Investment and brokerage accounts
• Real property and vehicles
• Life insurance policies, which pay to named beneficiaries through the insurer
• Money owed to the deceased: undeposited cheques, tax refunds, final pay, Canada Pension Plan benefits
• Digital wallets and online payment balances

And it does not show the other half of the picture: what the estate owes. Debts and creditor claims do not sit in any registry at all.

The point

Searching the Bank of Canada registry is a good five minutes. It is not asset discovery. An estate's holdings are spread across active accounts, registered plans, property and institutions the family may never have heard of, and the only way the picture comes together is by going and looking for each piece.

That is what Succession Intel does. Research and compilation of assets and debts: we identify the accounts, holdings and creditor claims across the estate and deliver a Estate Research Report within 5 business days of intake completion. What the registry does for dormant balances, we do for the whole estate.