Looking for lost money? Check North Carolina’s unclaimed property fund
Dale Folwell has a big Christmas stocking for North Carolinians — one stuffed with more than $900 million in cash and property.
Folwell, the state treasurer, manages the state’s unclaimed property, or escheats, fund. It contains money returned to the state after going unclaimed in back accounts, uncollected security deposits and dividend checks as well as the long-forgotten contents of safety deposit boxes.
“As keeper of the public purse, I take my job very seriously of saving money and making money,” Folwell said Friday, “but also returning money to its rightful owner. It’s just doing our job.”
There are over 17 million items — either cash or property — in the fund valued at about $919 million, according to the treasurer’s office. For Mecklenburg County, there are about 1.7 million items valued at $196 million.
That includes $2,556 that belonged to the Carolina Panthers. At a ceremony in Charlotte on Thursday, Folwell announced the award, which the team then donated to Safe Alliance, a non-profit that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
To see if you’re on the list, go to nccash.com and search. If you’re on it, click “claim.”
From July 1 to Nov. 30, the treasurer’s office returned $24 million to its owners. Since 2017, it’s given back almost $200 million.
Folwell said there’s money in the fund that belongs not only to individuals but to companies and non-profits. More than $1 million belongs to churches.
And it’s not just money.
Earlier this year, Folwell said, his office returned a soldier’s WWII medals to a family that had been looking for them for years. They’d been abandoned in a bank safety deposit box.
He said all kinds of things have been left in deposit boxes after people stop paying the rent. That includes teeth: gold, silver and false.
If you expect something from the fund for the holidays, you may be disappointed. Folwell said processing a claim could take 100 days.
“I didn’t feel like Santa Claus,” he said. “I just felt I was doing my job.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
