The Alberta government is seeking the rightful owners of a combined $154-million in unclaimed money and property.
Alberta’s unclaimed property registry holds money that is lost, abandoned or forgotten.
“Who doesn’t like free money?” Treasury Board president and Minister of Finance Nate Horner said.
The registry contains millions in cash, cheques, money orders and other unclaimed items belonging to people who may be entitled to an unexpected payout.
Alberta’s unclaimed property registry returned $1.4-million to 650 people in 2023 alone.
“Alberta’s unclaimed property registry is free and easy to check, and a quick search of the registry could help reunite someone with money that they may not even know they were entitled to,” Horner said.
Almost 350,000 individual items remain unclaimed in the registry, including one valued at more than $850,000.
If claimed, it will be the largest single balance the province has ever paid out, surpassing the current record of $368,124, which was returned to its rightful owner in 2019.
Since its inception in 2008, Alberta’s unclaimed property registry has returned $13.8-million to more than 8,500 owners.
Sources of the unclaimed funds include unclaimed deposits, uncashed wages, loan overpayments and unclaimed funds from inactive investment accounts.
Alberta’s unclaimed property program is governed and managed by the province through the Unclaimed Personal Property and Vested Property Act.
The act provides 10 years for owners to stake and reclaim their lost money, after which the money is transferred to the government’s general revenue fund to help pay for programs and services for Albertans.
Individuals can search Alberta’s unclaimed property registry at www.missingmoney.com, a portal used by Alberta and other North American jurisdictions that allows searches across multiple jurisdictions.
