Unclaimed money or property is transfered to the state in the process known as 'escheat'.
To put it plainly, the term 'escheat' defines the process through which unclaimed property after the expiry of a certain period of time gets transfered to the state. The escheat laws advocates believe there are at least two valid reason in favor of existence of the escheat laws: firstly, property presumes free transferability, but to be transferable, abandoned property has to be owned, i.e. to be transfered to a new owner; secondly, escheating to a state means that abandoned property becomes inderectly owned by all citizens of that state so it could be benefited from by the whole society. In recent years states have started using their escheat statutes more aggressively, reasonably regarding escheat as traditional source of states income.
Should you under conditions initiate your unclaimed money possible held by the NC government? Of course you should!
