State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, was in Stokes County on Thursday, Aug. 10, to meet with officials at a Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility, and present them with a check for money that had gotten sidetracked.
“Any day we can reunite people and businesses with their money is a good day. Being able to return money to Universal Health Care/King is especially gratifying because of the hard work its employees perform in assisting one of the most vulnerable segments of North Carolina’s population,” Treasurer Folwell said. “They provide essential health, therapy and social services to people when they are most in need of that care.”
The Unclaimed Property Division (UPD) of the Department of State Treasurer (DST) safeguards money that has become undeliverable for a variety of reasons. UPD, commonly called NCCash.com, retains custody of the money until the rightful owners claim it. During a routine review of data in NCCash.com, DST staff identified $3,800 belonging to the 96-bed skilled nursing facility.
“Universal Health Care/King appreciates the diligence and efforts of Treasurer Folwell, and the NCCash team in reuniting us with our unclaimed property. Thank you all for your efforts. This is an excellent program that benefits all of North Carolina,” said Jerry Horne, Universal Health Care/King administrator.
“This is not an isolated instance,” Treasurer Folwell said. “We regularly return money to residents, businesses, civic agencies, churches and nonprofit organizations in Stokes County. In fact, there is currently $4.4 million in unclaimed funds, and 76,043 owners who can apply for their return free of charge today.”
Through May 31, UPD has paid 174,466 claims statewide totaling over $99.6 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 May 31, DST paid 99,551 NC Cash Match claims totaling $26.3 million.
Under state law, NCCash.com is the repository for funds that are escheated, or turned over, to DST custody. 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.
NCCash.com is currently safeguarding nearly $1.09 billion in escheated funds, representing 17.7 million properties awaiting return to the rightful owners after being lost, misdirected or overlooked. More than 19 million owners are associated with those properties.
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.
