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States and federal agencies are holding billions of dollars in unclaimed property
and missing money. Assets are considered legally abandoned when contact
with owners is lost - typically due to an unreported address change
or the expiration of a postal forwarding order, name change after marriage or divorce, and incomplete or
illegible records. These funds are
transferred to a government trust account in a legal process known
as escheat. Here they await your claim.
More than 55 million Americans own savings bonds,
often purchased through payroll withholding plans or received as gifts. All US savings bonds
stop earning interest at final maturity, forty years or less from the issue
date.
The total value of unredeemed bonds that have reached final maturity currently exceeds $13
billion. With added interest, a bond could now be worth more than five times
its original face value.
Only
owners of Series H or HH bonds that pay interest by check (less than 1%
of all bonds) are notified when bonds reach final maturity. All others - including
holders of Series EE savings bonds and family members whose deceased
relatives may have owned savings bonds - must take
affirmative action to replace or redeem forgotten bonds.
The U.S. Treasury is also holding over $200 million in registered securities
that have stopped earning interest, as well as millions of dollars in savings bonds held under government
safekeeping programs. And each year over
15,000 savings bonds and 25,000 bond interest payments go undelivered
when the owner moves and fails to provide a forwarding address.
For a
search of the unredeemed and undelivered bond database, and to receive claims
forms and information on lost and destroyed
bonds order our Special Report: U.S. Savings Bond
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