US Savings Bonds

My Dad bought savings bonds at times in his life. In the late 1980s, he put my name as the "POD" or as the joint owner. Now, these were done before I got married, and so the name on them was variously indicated as "Pat Talley", "Patricia Talley", "Patricia A Talley", "Patricia Ann Talley", I guess depending on how he thought of me on that particular day or whether the person at the bank suggested that he should indicate my full name.

I received these bonds from his estate after he died, and they have been residing in the safety deposit box pretty much ever since. When we were in the DFW area in April, we visited the safety deposit box to see if there were any house papers that we should retrieve, I saw the bonds and realized that they needed to be redeemed. I tried to redeem them at the Chase bank where the safety deposit box was located, but, they could not redeem them because I didn't have paperwork that proved that Pat Talley, Patricia Talley, et al. were the same as Patricia Cartwright whose ids I had. No worries, I was on my way to Virginia in a few weeks and could get my marriage license there.

While in Virginia, we went to the New Kent County Courthouse Records Room, and wow, was it interesting! First, even though the court was not in session, we found that we could carry nothing into the building - no purse, no cell phone - so we left everything in the Jeep (side note: if you are thinking about stealing a bunch of purses from cars, the parking lot is right outside the Sheriff's office). We found our way to the right place, and the lady who greeted us had known my dad. She very quickly and efficiently found our marriage license and gave me several certified copies.

Side note: While we were there, I thought of looking up information on the property that we own/steward in New Kent County, and a man worked with us to find all the information about it - including going back to very old books where the original survey that was referenced in all newer transactions was located. His family had lived across the road from the farm when I was growing up. It is so precious to belong to a small community!

I subsequently went to the bank where Dad had actually purchased these US Savings Bonds to see if I could redeem the ones that had reached full maturity, and, armed with the appropriate items of proof (his death certificate and my marriage certificate), sure enough, I was able to redeem the ones I wanted to redeem.

However, during the 1987-1988 timeframe, he purchased a couple of bonds each month... I wasn't sure I wanted to try to find a bank each month wherever we might be to redeem the bonds that fully matured that month. I debated redeeming all of them at the local bank, forgoing any additional interest (they are earning 4% interest!). I decided to try the route the lady at the bank in Coppell had recommended, to register them in TreasuryDirect. As far as I could tell from that website, I would send them the hardcopy bonds and they would convert them to online holdings in a linked account to my primary account and, in my case, change the ownership name to my name. While in Virginia, I completed the paperwork that they required to be sent in with the bonds, and mailed them in with a copy of dad's death certificate and my marriage certificate. In the past week, the bonds have become visible in my online linked account on TreasuryDirect, and the ones that fully matured in July were redeemed.

The TreasuryDirect site places the proceeds in a "Zero-Percent C of I" (non-interest bearing Certificate of Indebtedness - WHY must the government use such terms???) or "C of I" for short. This account can be used to purchase additional savings bonds, or transferred to a bank account of my choosing. It says that it may take two business days to complete the transfer to a bank account - I requested it this morning... so the funds should be there by Monday. As I understand it, each month, as additional bonds reach full maturity, they will redeem them and put the funds in the C of I. I *think* that I can somehow indicate that the proceeds should go directly to my bank account, but from what I have read so far, it looks like I may need to transfer the bonds to another account (not a "linked" account as is required for the initial conversion).

Anyway, I thought there might be readers of this blog who have physical bonds in their possession for whom this information may be useful. I can't say that the TreasuryDirect site is "user-friendly", but it is not awful to use either.