Curtis closed his father's estate the way a careful person does. He worked from the folder his father left behind, closed every account listed in it, filed the terminal return, got the clearance certificate, and told his sister the cheques were coming. Eleven months later he learned about an account that had never been in the folder, and hadn't been at his father's bank for years.

In this episode I get into where money actually goes when an account sits untouched long enough, and why almost no executor checklist in Canada tells you to go looking for it. There's a national registry. Four provinces run registries of their own for the money that never reaches the national one, and each of those provinces plays by different rules on deadlines and fees. There are two more free searches beyond that which most people have never heard of.

In the article, I also cover the practical side of claiming: who's allowed to file on behalf of an estate, what documents you need, how long it takes, and a timing trap that catches executors who are still waiting on their grant. And I answer thequestion that comes up every time this subject does, which is what to do if you find the money after the estate has already been closed and distributed.

Everything in this episode is free to do. All of it together takes about ten minutes.

Read the full article.

Disclaimer: This content is for general information only and is not legal, financial, medical, or tax advice.