Complicated EE Savings Bond Issue
Hi Terry,
Sorry, this is pretty confusing, I hope it makes sense, the way I’ve spelled it out. If you can help or point us in the proper direction to get this resolved, that would be tremendous.
A few years ago, my wife LP, was handed some Series EE Savings Bonds by her step-father NZ. They were co-owned by his wife JZ (who was LP’s mom) and JZ’s mom, MK. They are addressed to MK and toward the bottom it says “or JZ”. Both ladies had already passed, when LP received the bonds from NZ, who has passed also. JZ had passed away some years before (1993) and MK passed (1999) a few years later.
MK lived with LP and me for a few years until she had to go to a nursing home. MK’s only other child was a daughter LW. LW took over MK’s finances from that point forward. However, LP was the executor for MK’s estate, per MK’s Will and again, was not aware of the bonds until years later.
MK had lived in a nursing home at the end and at that point there was nothing to speak of, regarding assets, as far as we were told. Although, LW was not very forthcoming with information during those last years of MK’s life. LW has since passed on, as well. There has been no contact with any of LW’s 3 adult children in many years and no idea where they are living.
We do have the Death certificates for JZ and MK. Also, the Last Will and Testament listing LP as executor and the bonds. Because of the intricacies of this, we find it hard to just put this letter, the documents mentioned and the bonds together in an envelope with whatever form may be needed and send it off to the Federal Reserve. Is there somewhere that we can go in person with this info? Or is there another way?
Thanks for any Help,
Terry Says
You’re right — this IS convoluted! But you did a pretty good job of explaining!
But my first question is: WHO HAS THE PHYSICAL SAVINGS BONDS??
Do you have any idea what happened to them?
Do you have serial numbers of the bonds, if you don’t have an actual bond?
Without that, the search will be difficult. You’ll have to start with the names actually registered as first owners of the bonds–and you do have that information.
Here’s how to contact the Treasury Department t start your search:
Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 214
Minneapolis, MN 55480
844-284-2676 (toll free)
Tough to get through to them these days. But send what you wrote me in your post — using correct names, and leaving out family details. Mention that you are the executor of the original estate. In fact, you’ll get more attention if you start by saying you are the executor of the estate of “…” and are searching for bonds mentioned in a bequest but never found.
There are several possibilities, of course. One of the people you mentioned might have cashed them in, using forged documents. Or the bonds may have matured and been escheated to the state of residence of the owner. I’m not exactly sure how long the Treasury keeps the matured bonds in force, before escheating them.
But you can search a partial spreadsheet at TreasuryDirect.gov –which is the basic resource for EVERYTHING you need to know about savings bonds.
Use this link for that spreadsheet. And good luck. Please let me know if you find anything!
