Old savings bonds hard to redeem

By Matt Gouras
Associated Press

Federal requirements onerous, holders say

HELENA, Mont. - Holders of lost savings bonds dating back to World War II say it's not nearly as easy to track down the lost money as the U.S. Treasury Department claims in an ongoing lawsuit.

The Bureau of the Public Debt counters that its process aims to make sure that only the legal owners of the old bonds are able to redeem them. Demanding requirements - which can include the Social Security number of long-dead original purchasers for a gift bond - are in place to make sure the money ends up in the right place, the agency said.

Anne Adams of Nashville doesn't believe it. She has spent months trying to recover lost bonds for her daughter and her husband. In both cases, she said the Treasury Department threw up insurmountable roadblocks to recovering the money.

Her husband served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, she said, and had a large portion of his paycheck automatically sent into savings bonds. Adams said the Treasury Department required copies of the original paycheck stubs in order to track down the lost bonds. The family had no way of getting the old paystubs from the Marines.

"It was a lot of money, probably half his paycheck for four years," Adams said.

For her daughter, Treasury is asking for the Social Security number of the now-deceased family friend - from another state - who originally bought the $100 bond in the late 1970s.

"It was a waste of money, it was a complete waste of money," Adams said of the bonds. "I am sure that money is going somewhere, but it is not to the people it was intended for."

If she can't find the lost bond or the requested documentation, the Treasury Department doesn't have to send her the money.

"I am starting to think that is what they were counting on," Adams said.

Joyce Harris, with the Bureau of the Public Debt, said the agency needs to make sure that only the legal owners of the bonds can redeem them.

"We want to make sure the rightful owner is getting the proceeds of the bond," she said.

More than $16 billion in bonds are unclaimed.

Several states are suing the federal government, seeking the money back on behalf of their residents.

Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Missouri argue states are the legal repository for lost funds and already have a system in place that makes it easy for people to reconnect with lost money.

The federal government counters that the money isn't really lost.

"It is not unclaimed property," Harris said. "It is unredeemed in our minds."