Over time, most businesses lose contact with a handful of customers and clients who fall through the cracks without closing their accounts. These dormant accounts are more than just a nuisance. They can be a costly administrative burden unless they’re dealt with promptly. Each year, millions of dollars go unclaimed in B.C. as unpaid wages, overpayments to debt collectors, dormant credit union accounts, outstanding proceeds from courts, pension plans, estates […]
Sherry MacLennan has joined the BC Unclaimed Property Society as the not-for-profit’s new Executive Director. Sherry brings to the organization more than 25 years of diverse management experience in the legal and non-profit sectors. A practicing lawyer, she has extensive expertise in governance, strategy, operations, digital transformation, community engagement and public legal education. Hailing from Legal Aid BC, where she previously served as Vice President, Public Legal Information and Applications, […]
After more than a decade as Executive Director of the BC Unclaimed Property Society (BCUPS), Alena Levitz has accepted a new position as Executive Director of the Vancouver-based Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation, which supports innovative medical research, economic education, the relief of poverty and heritage preservation. During her tenure with BCUPS, Alena oversaw the recovery of more than $50 million in unclaimed assets from businesses and organizations and […]
On January 1, 2022, New Brunswick became the fourth Canadian province to implement an unclaimed property program to help reconnect consumers with money they’ve forgotten, following in the footsteps of British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. The Unclaimed Property Act of New Brunswick requires businesses, associations, and government organizations to review their books and identify unclaimed or dormant financial assets. Companies and organizations holding unclaimed funds valued at more than $100 […]
When searching for unclaimed funds, Surrey-based retired primary school teacher Sue Wallace first did her homework. She initially became aware of BC’s unclaimed property program three years ago after reading about the BC Unclaimed Property Society (BCUPS) in her local community newspaper. She visited the BCUPS’s website and noted there was an amount listed under her name, “Susan Wallace” in the unclaimed property database. “I just dismissed it at the […]
With the federal election behind us, the minority Liberal government is now turning its attention to fulfilling its campaign promises. One item on the agenda is to update the federal unclaimed property regime. In the federal budget tabled last April, the Liberal government proposed to “modernize” the federal unclaimed assets regime and expand the scope of the program by including unclaimed balances from terminated federally-regulated pension plans. While no concrete […]
