N.C. State Treasurer’s Office State Fair Event Helps Return $186,000 To Rightful Owners

The North Carolina State Treasurer's Office announced that its event at the N.C. State Fair helped return unclaimed cash to North Carolinians. By the end of the state fair, the Treasurer’s office helped 488 fair goers reclaim $185,796 in unclaimed funds that belonged to them.  

In accordance with state law, NCCash.gov current safeguards $1.4 billion in funds that are escheated or turned over to the Department of State Treasurer. The money is awaiting return to the rightful owners after being lost, misdirected or overlooked. It represents 25 million properties statewide, and more than 27.5 million owners are associated with that property. 

“Our team works all year to help folks track down their unclaimed property,” said Treasurer Brad Briner. “It’s fun for them to get to go to the fair and help fairgoers head home with more money than they came with.” 

Unclaimed assets consist 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 that they are due money. People might change residences and forget 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.