The cost of claiming what’s yours: understanding the external costs of claiming your money

Let’s start with some good news: BC Unclaimed does not charge any fees to claim funds from our office —the amount transferred in your name is the amount we return to you. Now for the not-so-great news, there are times where you might not have exactly what’s needed to prove the money is yours and there will be costs to obtain that documentation. For example, your former credit union may charge a fee to produce a letter confirming your old account’s details. We’d consider that an external cost to claim your funds from us. Keep in mind that’s only necessary if you can’t find something from your own records proving the funds are from your account. Most times, claimants will already have what they need to claim the funds sitting at home in a filing cabinet or on their computers.

Still, it’s always helpful to know a rough estimate of how much we are holding in your name because your time spent gathering the documents is valuable too. For that reason, we include the approximate dollar amount sitting unclaimed in our replies to inquiries and in the letters we send out looking for the rightful owner. This allows you to weigh the potential cost associated with gathering the documents needed to claim the funds versus what we have in your name. The rest of this blog will give three common examples of claims where external costs may apply.

Example 1: Unclaimed court funds

If the money BC Unclaimed holds in your name is from a court case, the Unclaimed Property Act requires that the court decide who is entitled to the unclaimed funds. This means you need to obtain a court order and provide us with a certified true copy to claim your funds. There may be court filing fees depending on the court we received the funds from and the specifics of the case. These fees are set by the Ministry of Attorney General and would apply if the funds were held by the court registry rather than with BC Unclaimed. Our staff are upfront about telling potential claimants that costs may apply to claiming court funds because we do not want them to spend more money than they will end up getting returned.

Example 2: Funds where the rightful owner has passed away

Another scenario where there may be external costs to claiming funds is if you are claiming on behalf of someone’s estate as their executor. The documents needed are usually the same ones the executor used to open an estate account at a bank. However, if many years have passed since the estate was settled, they may need to pay, for example, for a certified true copy of the death certificate if they don’t have one. For the full list of requirements to claim funds for a deceased owner, check out the bottom of this page of our website.

Example 3: Unclaimed estate funds from the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC

The final example where costs may be incurred is in certain cases where BC Unclaimed is holding a balance from your relative’s estate transferred by the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC (the “PGT”). Often the PGT creates a family tree in compliance with the law that shows who is entitled to the money. If no family tree was created, relatives must prove their entitlement based on the relevant provisions of BC’s estate legislation. This is done by sending vital documents such as birth, death, and marriage certificates to build the family tree and prove which family members (also known as heirs) are entitled to the funds from the estate. The costs of building a family tree can add up— each certificate may cost upwards of $50 to obtain from Vital Statistics. If your family tree is small, these costs may be minimal. But if your family tree is large and the value of the estate is low, we strongly recommend considering the costs of obtaining these certificates before going ahead.

Conclusion

BC Unclaimed is proud to offer our service for free, but we also acknowledge that sometimes there are external costs involved in gathering the documentation required to claim your funds. We want to make sure you are informed of these costs. We hope this blog post has equipped you with the information needed to decide if you will pursue a claim to your funds. If you need more information, BC Unclaimed staff are available to answer your questions by phone or email Monday to Friday 8AM to 4:30PM.