State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, returned lost money to Guilford College during the college’s banking conference held at the Koury Convention Center on Monday, April 3. The college was sponsoring a conference called “Confronting our Disrupted World Economy,” featuring Treasurer Folwell, as well as the president of the Richmond Reserve Bank and business leaders from the area.
During a review by the Department of State Treasurer’s (DST) Unclaimed Property Division (UPD), staff identified $24,531.99 belonging to the college. Dr. Kyle Farmbry, J.D., Ph.D., president of Guilford College, joined the treasurer to accept the funds on behalf of the college.
Dr. Farmbry has been president of the college since January 2022. Guilford College is a private liberal arts educational institution founded by the Quakers in 1837 as a co-educational boarding school known as the New Garden Boarding School. Originally for Quakers only, the school began accepting students of every religious affiliation in 1841, while still maintaining a commitment to Quaker values. Its founder, Levi Coffin, grew up in the woods of New Garden, which still exist on campus today. Coffin, an abolitionist and political dissenter, used the area as a meeting point for the Underground Railroad during the 19th century.
“We are grateful to the Office of NC State Treasurer Dale Folwell for helping us to identify these resources,” said Dr. Farmbry. “We plan on using the funds identified to support scholarships for N.C. students who are attending Guilford College.”
NCCash.com is a repository for $17.7 million properties valued at $1.02 billion under DST’s custody awaiting return to the rightful owners after being lost, misdirected or overlooked. More than 19 million owners are associated with those properties being safeguarded by DST.
UPD paid 178,857 claims amounting to more than $105 million during the 2022 fiscal year that ended June 30. Both numbers were historical records. The returns are on pace to set another record this fiscal year. Through Nov. 30, UPD has paid 74,979 claims totaling over $44 million from NCCash. Part of that total has been disbursed through the NCCash Match program, a no-hassle, expedited system that eliminated paperwork processing. As of Nov. 30, DST paid 44,200 Cash Match claims totaling about $12.6 million.
Under state law, UPD receives and safeguards funds that are escheated, or turned over, to DST. The unclaimed property consists of bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned.
Unclaimed property can result from a person or entity forgetting they are due money, or from a move of location and forgetting to provide a new address. It also could result from a typing error in a house number or zip code in an address, a name change, or data loss from a business converting its computer system. As society becomes more mobile and steadily moves to electronic transactions, the risk of having unclaimed property has increased.
More information, including how to find out if you are owed money, can be found at https://www.nccash.com/.
