COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) – The state of South Carolina has more than $503 million of other people’s and businesses’ money, sitting in an “unclaimed property” account at the state treasurer’s office. The money comes from things like old bank accounts, stocks, security deposits, and inheritances.
State Treasurer Curtis Loftis says, “The largest amount of money that I’ve arranged to give back so far is $750,000. Now that was a person from Chesnee. Their father had been collecting Duke stock. Didn’t have a lot of money. The fella worked for Duke and just got paid partly in stock and over time it amounted to $750,000. Now the fella had no idea. His father’s been dead for almost 30 years. He had no idea. We found the money and got it back to him.”
To see if you’ve got any money in the state’s unclaimed property account, go tohttp://treasurer.sc.gov/
Then click on “unclaimed property” and, in the box that comes up, enter your name or the name of friend or relative.
The state has also joined http://www.missingmoney.com/, which allows you to search other states’ unclaimed property records, in case you or a family member lived in another state or have money there.
Loftis says, “Go check Delaware while you’re at missingmoney.com. Check Delaware. They’re the default state, so when a big bank or securities house can’t find you they send it to Delaware, and they have lots of money, and lots of money that belongs to the people of South Carolina.”
