Notice to securities registrants and mutual funds

March 24, 2006

The Autorité des marchés financiers (Autorité) has been asked to support the actions of the Curateur public du Québec (Curateur public) in connection with its mandate to recover unclaimed property, in this case mutual funds securities, in accordance with the Public Curator Act (R.S.Q., c. C-81).

As part of its general mandate, the Autorité has an interest in ensuring that all registrants under its jurisdiction comply with all the laws of Québec.

By publishing this notice, the Autorité would like to draw the attention of securities registrants (dealers, advisors, firms) and mutual funds who, in the normal course of business, hold accounts for clients who have made no claim, engaged in no transaction or given no instruction for over three years and of whom they have lost track.

With this in mind, we note the following principles:

The registrant responsible for opening the client account must inform the holder of the client's property, if he does not hold it himself, as well as the Curateur public, that he has lost track of his client for over three years;
The holder of the client's property is then responsible for transferring the unclaimed property to the Curateur public.

Please visit the Curateur public's web site This link will open in a new window for further information. You may wish to read the instructions specifically affecting the transfer to the Curateur public of unclaimed mutual fund securities This link will open in a new window.