Changing Beneficiary on EESavings Bonds

My late husband and I have EE Savings Bonds. One half of them are in his name with me as beneficiary and the other half of them are in my name with him as beneficiary. I do not want to cash them in but do want to leave them to our children. How can I re-title them? Or, better yet, what is the best was to pass them to our children? Thank you for all your help in the past.

Terry Says:  You can do this, change the co-owner or beneficiary, but you must follow certain rules.   Since your husband passed, you must have a valid copy of the death certificate to make this change.  I’m going to paste below a good article at www.savingsbondadvisor.com, that explains the procedure (and I have highlighted certain points in red):

Adding a co-owner or changing the beneficiary of a Savings Bond never causes a taxable event, so it’s a simple case to deal with:

• Forms:
  • For electronic Savings Bonds at Treasury Direct, you can manage the registrations online. See my post Changing the registration in Treasury Direct for more information.
  • For paper Savings Bonds use Public Debt Form 4000.
• Warnings and Cautions:
  • You must sign the form and your signature must be certified by a bank – don’t sign the back of the Savings Bonds themselves
  • The Treasury won’t reissue paper bonds to update an address or to change denominations unless a bond is being split between heirs or parties to a divorce
  • Changing the beneficiary on the older and no longer issued Series E or Series H bonds requires the consent of the current beneficiary
  • A new co-owner must be related to you by blood or marriage
  • Keep in mind that a Savings Bond registration can have only a co-owner or a beneficiary, not both
  • Without creating a taxable event, the first-named or principal owner of a Savings Bond can:
    • remove or change the beneficiary
    • remove the beneficiary and add a co-owner
    • remove or change the second-named owner or co-owner
    • remove the co-owner and add a beneficiary

For more information go to www.TreasuryDirect.gov, click on “Individual”, then look at the topic list on the left side of the screen and you will find “Savings Bonds.”  If you still have questions, there is a “contact” tab on the top right of your screen and you can call them!