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CHARLESTON -- State Treasurer Riley Moore announced his Office's Unclaimed Property Division returned a new record-high $26.8 million worth of unclaimed property to individuals, businesses and organizations during the last fiscal year -- over $8 million more than the previous record set during the prior year.
"We're proud to be returning money back to our citizens at the fastest pace in state history," Moore said. "We were already proud of setting a record of $18 million last year, and we completely shattered that this year. This is the first time we've ever returned more than $20 million in a year, and we surpassed that by a huge margin."
During the Fiscal Year 2023 period that ended June 30, the Office returned $26.8 million worth of money to its rightful owners. That far exceeded the record $18.6 million returned by the Office during the last fiscal year.
"Our Unclaimed Property Division has worked incredibly hard over the past year to find new ways to raise awareness of the program and reconnect people with their lost funds," Moore said. "They've launched new programs, increased digital marketing efforts and worked with our regional Treasury staff to educate people in our communities across the state about unclaimed property."
Last year, the Office launched the "West Virginia Cash Now" program, which automatically sends unclaimed property checks to verifiable residents without the need to go through the claims paperwork process. More than $4 million worth of checks were sent out during the first year of that program, with another $4 million set to be issued later this fall.
The Office has ramped up its digital marketing efforts over the past year to help raise awareness of the program with various online and mobile audiences. The mobile version of that website was also updated with a new SMS text feature that allows users to forward unclaimed property listings to family and friends if they see their names listed.