Treasurer Briner Outlines 2025 Successes in “DST Open Access” Q&A with Media

State Treasurer Brad Briner is hosted a press conference today to look back at a busy and successful year at the Department of State Treasurer.  

“When I came into office, I inherited many challenges facing our divisions. Working with my talented team, we made some hard but necessary decisions, resolved issues, established winning strategies and implemented forward-looking policies,” said Treasurer Briner.  

Treasurer Briner gave a full recap of the work done by this department with his final “DST Open Access” virtual press availability of the year. He highlighted money saved, money earned, creation of transparency and accountability measures and efforts to deliver much-needed relief to local governments devastated by Hurricane Helene.  

2025 Department of State Treasurer Division Highlights:

Investment Management Division:

• The Investment Modernization Act (HB506) was signed in June, creating the North Carolina Investment Authority (NCIA) and setting in motion the transfer of investment responsibilities from the State Treasurer to the NCIA.  
• With strong support from cross-division collaboration, the five-member NCIA Board established frameworks and policies to begin execution on Jan. 1, 2026.
• The Investments team has grown from 24 to 36 experienced members, with plans for further expansion to run a best-in-class investment organization.  
• The North Carolina Retirement Systems’ assets earned approximately a 12% return calendar year to date through October, translating to roughly $15 billion in earnings.  
• To ensure the invested assets work harder for retirees, the team implemented active rebalancing, redeploying about $6 billion in excess cash and capturing investment gains across higher earning asset classes throughout 2025.
• Sold state pension-owned property in Apex to a partnership of UNC Health and Duke Health to create North Carolina Children’s Health, an independent children’s hospital.

State Health Plan:

Benefit & Premium Changes

• The State Health Plan (Plan) staff and Board of Trustees worked tirelessly to address the Plan’s $507 million deficit. After approving benefit changes and a new premium strategy for 2026, teams immediately began the extensive work necessary to implement these updates.
• Implemented salary-based premiums for all active State Health Plan members. This major undertaking required a herculean effort by both Plan staff and Benefitfocus, the Plan’s Eligibility and Enrollment Services vendor.

New Initiatives

• Refocused our efforts on member health through the rollout of several new initiatives:
  • Hello Heart: A free digital program that helps individuals track their blood pressure, understand heart-health trends, and build sustainable, healthy habits. It launched in July in select rural areas of the state.
  • Hinge Health: Provides eligible members with virtual physical therapy solutions to help reduce joint and muscle pain from the comfort of home.
  • Ventricle Health: A value-based cardiology provider network designed to expand access to care, improve outcomes, and lower costs for members with heart failure and other cardiac conditions.

Providers & Partnership Strategy

• Developed a new provider strategy focused on improving member health and access to high-quality care. The Preferred Provider Program is scheduled to launch on Jan. 1, 2026.
• Built a new provider partnership that delivers value to members and savings to the Plan. Lantern, a new surgical benefit offering a no-cost surgery option for members needing pre-planned, non-urgent procedures, was launched in November.  
• Successfully negotiated a contract agreement with CVS Caremark, the State Health Plan’s pharmacy benefit manager, securing hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Plan members and authorizing the Plan to negotiate directly with manufacturers of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
• Helped to resolve a contract agreement between Duke Health and Aetna that keeps State Health Plan members in network with Duke providers. Aetna is the Plan’s third-party administrator.

Retirement Systems Division:

• Released 1099Rs to 373,341 benefit recipients on Jan. 3, a record time. That compares to Jan. 7 in 2022, Jan. 4 in 2023, and Jan. 5 in 2024.
• Modernized the ORBIT login experience with faster access, enhanced security and easier account management.  
• Completed implementation of the first benefit increase for the Firefighters’ and Rescue Squad Workers’ Pension Fund in over 15 years.  
• Worked with retirees and government employers to ensure retirees could return to work in Hurricane Helene recovery efforts without having their pension stopped.  
• Worked with the legislature to secure full funding of Retirement Systems for FYE 2026.  
• Worked with the legislature to secure passage of laws ensuring the Retirement Systems’ strong governance and continued compliance with federal law.  
• Published an actuarial study to ensure assumptions are updated and funding goals are balanced – including a recommendation to allow employers three additional years to pay for unfunded liabilities.  

Supplemental Retirement Plans

• Achieved record-setting new enrollments of 23,769 through October, a 6% increase year to date over 2024.  
• Logged a new record 29,965 members increasing their contributions through October, a 9% increase year to date.  
• Implemented an Administrative Fee Holiday for 2025  
• Domestic Abuse Withdrawals: helps domestic violence victims get quick access to resources to aid in escape from abusive situations.  
• Self-Certification Hardships: reduces administrative burden by eliminating the need to provide documentation at the time of request.  
• In-Plan Roth conversions: allows any individual to transfer pre-tax funds into a Roth account within the plan. It’s taxable in the current year but allows for future tax-free withdrawals.  
• Re-Invested administrative fee reserves, earning an additional $100,000 in annual interest.  
• Manager change in the NC Large Cap Core Fund with the aim of improving overall performance.

NC ABLE  

• Medicaid Clawback Reversal: collaborated with N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to ask the General Assembly to protect ABLE accounts from Medicaid clawbacks.

State and Local Government Finance Division:

State Debt and Refunding  

• In calendar year 2025, the state sold $1,316,770,000 in bonds.  
• Reduce N.C.’s general fund debt by $181,010,000, or 8.6%. That amount equaled nearly 11% of the general obligation debt of the general fund. This was done by using funds found by the Treasurer's office and leveraging them with refundings and purchases of tendered bonds.
• The Local Government Commission (LGC) adopted resolutions helping local governments refund certain bond issues in a timelier manner.  By meeting certain conditions, local governments can now issue refunding bonds without LGC approval. This aims to speed up transactions when market conditions are ripe.

N.C. Capital Facilities Finance Agency  

• Closed three tax-exempt transactions for educational institutions in 2025 with several more in the pipeline, compared to one transaction in 2023 and none in 2024.  
• Changed previous restrictive maturity policy to match what the underlying statutes provide, generating more interest.  The office has become more flexible, accommodating and inviting.

Local Government System (LOGOS) Audit Module Launch

• Centralized Oversight: Phase 1 of the LOGOS audit module consolidates audit contract data and submission tracking into one platform, improving consistency and reducing manual reconciliation.
• UAL Integration: Supports process by linking audit data with inclusion criteria, helping staff identify units needing oversight sooner and more efficiently.
• Communication: Creates simple, easy-to-use portals for secure encrypted communication and enhanced transparency of reporting results of financial transactions.

Late Audits – Potential Sales Tax Withholding

• LGC staff issued Notices of Noncompliance to 118 counties and municipalities that did not file Fiscal Year 2024 audit reports by April 1, 2025.  20 appeals were filed.
• After robust review, 12 appeals were granted and 12 were denied.   Another 37 units received automatic appeals.  
• Units with denied appeals will have a portion of sales tax distribution withheld until the FY 2024 audit report is submitted or for two years, whichever period is less.    

Office of State Treasurer:  

• Led a first of its kind pilot program in N.C. with Open AI ChatGPT to explore artificial intelligence benefits in workflow operations, resulting in time savings, efficiency and effectiveness.
• Implemented public accountability measures for all divisions. These are on website as part of priority to make operations and activities more transparent.
• Launched monthly Finance Fridays newsletter to improve financial literacy and educate North Carolinians on ways to best manage their assets and build generational wealth.  
• Initiated distribution of Treasurer Briner’s “Bottom Line With Brad” financial literacy column in partnership with over 100 media outlets statewide.
• Improved public records process by creating new paralegal position with singular objective of managing requests and decreasing turnaround time.
• Successfully migrated Department web pages from .com to .gov addresses, to give greater assurance of oversight and security to all users.
• Expanded transparency and direct communication with members and taxpayers through social media efforts. Enhanced our video footprint with a goal to diversify and increase the public reach of important departmental messaging.
• Created staff recognition programs to highlight exceptional performance.
• Established department guidelines to meet new Americans With Disabilities Act requirements to make digital content accessible to those using assistive technologies.
• Held intra-departmental fundraising events. For victims of Hurricane Helene: donation to the North Carolina Community Foundation of nearly $1,300. For Raleigh Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina: more than 170 pounds of food.
• Redesigned and relaunched the internal employee newsletter to foster greater connectedness, transparency and information. The Navigator includes important events, workplace programs, policy matters, individual and division awards and accomplishments and features “get-to-know your coworker” articles.

Financial Operations Division:

Procurement & Contracting

• DOA P&C Compliance Review: no findings (first time in history)

Financial Reporting

• Successfully completed the ACFR package and facilitated the subsequent audit, ensuring timely delivery with minimal issues.

Accounting

• Successful issuance of the financial statements for the Supplemental Retirement Plans and Investment Programs with no significant audit findings.

Banking

• Changed the process of entering wires manually to a file upload, cutting processing time from around 1.5 hours per typical day and 3 hours for monthly payday wires to approximately 10-15 minutes per day.  

Unclaimed Property Division:   

Claims Paid

• 114,000 claims totaling $99 million paid from Jan. 1 to Nov. 19.
• 76% of claims were paid via NCCash Match or E-Claims, so they did not require the claimant to submit a claim form and supporting documents.  
• NCCash Match: 50,000 claims totaling $13 million were paid. With NCCash Match, unclaimed property owners do not need to take action to receive their money. We research our database, identify qualifying claims of $5,000 or less and send a notification letter to verified claimants. A check follows in 6-8 weeks.
• E-Claims:  37,000 claims totaling $6.3 million were paid. Some claims generated through our website may be eligible for E-Claim Processing. E-Claim Processing attempts to electronically match claimant information with the property owner information we have in our database. 

Funds Remitted

• $427 million in unclaimed funds was remitted from Jan. 1 to Nov. 19.
• $4.6 million of the funds remitted resulted from efforts of our Compliance and Audit Team to ensure holders are reporting unclaimed property per statute.

Open AI Pilot

• UPD participated in Department Open AI partnership.  During pilot program uncovered potential millions in unclaimed property — streamlining outreach and operational efficiencies.  

Fraud Prevention

• From Jan. 1 to Nov. 19 almost 400 claims totaling over $1 million were denied because of fraudulent activity. UPD continues to increase its efforts to reduce the fraudulent payment of claims to ensure public funds are used appropriately and services are delivered with integrity.  

Disaster Services/Rural & Economic Development

The Hurricane Helene Cashflow Loan Program was built from the ground up in 2025 as an ultra-lightweight initiative designed to distribute interest free loans to local units of government quickly, with minimal administrative overhead.  

Rapid Development and Execution  

• The first loan wired within 55 days of Treasurer Brad Briner assuming office, with all personnel, legal, accounting, document preparation and program architecture completed during that time frame.
• The vast majority of loans was wired within 1-2 days of being submitted by local units, with many being wired the same day.  

Exceptional Value  

• Department staff continue to build and operate every aspect of the program, saving the state millions of dollars on third-party consulting fees.  

Forward-thinking Scalability  

• The program’s dynamic design means its architecture can be re-used during future emergencies.  

Radical Transparency  

• All loan details, including dates and loans that were declined, are publicly available at nctreasurer.gov  

Highlights  

• 163 loans were offered to 104 individual communities in North Carolina, of which 109 were executed.
• Largest loan with Asheville, for $12,218,317.22, executed on September 16, 2025.  
• Smallest loan offered to Polkville, population 545, for $468.80 in February 2025.  

Timeline