A recent online post from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond highlighted the prevalence of heirs property parcels across North Carolina and the need to provide paths to resolution to enhance wealth retention and asset buiding among heirs property owners. The article quotes work by the Conservation Trust of North Carolina and Wake Forest Law that estimates the frozen capital is between $1.86 and $2 billion.

Counties with the greatest percent of heirs property parcels are Bertie, Halifax, Jones, Hertford, Martin, Northampton, Vance, Warren, and Washington, all with heirs property representing between 4 to 8% of all parcels.

Also noted in the article is the pending Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act (UPHPA) that remains a policy solution that can help ease the risks facing heirs' property owners. While this has been introduced in the NC legislature, it has not yet passed, compared to South Carolina that passed the legislation in 2016.

For more information:  https://www.richmondfed.org/region_communities/regional_data_analysis/regional_matters/2024/rm_12_19_24_heirs_property_carolinas