RALEIGH — Last week, N.C. State Treasurer Dale Folwell delivered a check for over half a million dollars to State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and N.C. State Board of Education chairman Eric Davis.
“At a time when so many schools are in need of money and resources, especially in rural and inner-city districts, every penny found to further North Carolina’s educational mission is a blessing,” Folwell said in a press release. “I see that need not only as a member of SBE, but as chairman of the Local Government Commission, which reviews and approves financing for school projects throughout North Carolina.”
Folwell presented a check for $519,029.16 to Truitt and Davis at the regularly scheduled State Board of Education meeting. The treasurer’s office had identified funds that were the result of unclaimed stock dividends that had apparently been misdirected.
Shares of stock had been issued in the name of “Department of Education State of North Carolina” based on a Prudential Financial group life insurance plan the state board of education had once held.
“Upon the shares and accrued dividends being deemed unclaimed and held by Prudential for the required holding period, the property was placed with DST’s Unclaimed Property Division (UPD), commonly called NCCash.com,” according to the press release from Folwell’s office.
“As keeper of the public purse, a North Carolina taxpayer and a believer in the power of education to change a person’s trajectory in life to achieve upward mobility and the joy of achievement, I am honored to return this money to its rightful owners so that it can be put to use where it’s most needed,” Folwell said.
Truitt told North State Journal that no decision has been made yet as to what will be done with the newly found money.
Folwell and his office have routinely highlighted the NCCash program for citizens in the state to find out whether or not they have unclaimed funds.
According to the program’s website, $105,158,116 has been returned to citizens in the state between Jul. 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022. Folwell tells North State Journal $110 million was claimed using the program last year. The largest payout to date was around $1.7 million to a single individual.
More information, including how to find out if you are owed money, can be found at https://www.nccash.com/.
