Every year, under New Brunswick’s Unclaimed Property Act (Act), businesses and other entities must review their books to search for monetary property that has been abandoned or forgotten by its owner for a certain amount of time. Monetary property is generally considered unclaimed when there has been no activity on the funds for at least three years; 10 years for credit union accounts.
To comply with the Act and Rules, businesses must:
- Determine if property held will become unclaimed at the end of this calendar year.
- For businesses who have not yet reported, determine also if property held became unclaimed in 2017 or any subsequent year.
- Notify apparent owners of unclaimed property three to six months before they deliver the unclaimed property to the program.
- If unsuccessful in notifying and connecting owners with their property, report and deliver unclaimed property during the program’s reporting period: January 1 to March 31 of each year. Reporting to be done through FundsFinderNB.ca.
- If you miss the reporting period, apply for late delivery. Once your application is approved, you can report and deliver unclaimed property any time during the year.
Reporting and remitting to the Unclaimed Property Program, administered by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission, is mandatory and is done through FundsFinderNB.ca.
Businesses can find more helpful information and resources through FundsFinderNB.ca. They call also subscribe to receive email notifications regarding updates on the Unclaimed Property Program or reminders on reporting periods.