FS Form 1522: Redeeming Savings Bonds and Certifying Your Signature

FS Form 1522 is the Treasury Department form you use to cash paper United States Savings Bonds, Savings Notes, Retirement Plan Bonds, and Individual Retirement Bonds when a bank won’t redeem them for you. You list the bonds, choose whether to be paid by direct deposit or check, sign in front of a certifying officer if the total is more than $1,000, and mail the form with the physical bonds to Treasury Retail Securities Services. The form itself takes about fifteen minutes. Getting the right documents together beforehand is what decides whether it goes smoothly or comes back rejected.

When You Actually Need This Form

Most people cash paper savings bonds at their own bank. FS Form 1522 is the route when that isn’t an option: your bank doesn’t redeem savings bonds, you’re acting under a power of attorney (which banks won’t accept for savings bonds), you’re settling an estate, or you hold Series HH bonds. All Series HH bonds have reached final maturity and no longer earn interest, so if you still have unredeemed ones, this form is how you collect the remaining principal and any deferred interest.¹²

Anyone with a legal right to payment on a qualifying bond can use the form: the owner, a co-owner, a surviving beneficiary named on the bond, the legal representative of a deceased or incompetent owner’s estate, or anyone else entitled to payment under federal savings bond regulations.³

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together from the bonds themselves and your records:

The name or names printed in the inscription on each bond, plus the issue date and serial number for every bond you want to redeem.
Your Taxpayer Identification Number. That’s your Social Security Number for an individual, or an EIN if payment goes to an estate or other entity.
If you want direct deposit: the financial institution’s name and phone number, its routing/transit number, your account number, and the account type.³

Download the form from the TreasuryDirect website. If you’re acting for an estate or under a power of attorney, you’ll need supporting legal documents too, covered further down.

Filling Out the Three Items

Item 1: Description of Bonds

Enter the name or names shown in the inscription on each bond, the issue date, and the serial number. The form doesn’t ask for denominations, so don’t hunt for face values. If you have more bonds than fit, attach a separate list or use FS Form 3500 to continue the serial numbers.³

Item 2: Direct Deposit Instructions

This is where you enter the account holder’s name, routing/transit number, and account number if you want an electronic payment. Check every digit against a recent bank statement. One wrong number bounces the payment back to Treasury and adds weeks. Leave Item 2 blank and Treasury will mail a check to the address you provide on the form.³

Item 3: Signature

Sign in ink, print your name, and include your mailing address, daytime phone, and email. Do not sign until you are standing in front of a certifying officer. A signature added earlier will be rejected.³

Getting Your Signature Certified

If the total redemption value is more than $1,000, every person whose signature is required must appear before an authorized certifying officer, prove their identity, and sign in that officer’s presence. The officer then applies a seal or stamp. Self-certification is never accepted.³

Inside the United States, any of the following can certify your signature:⁴

A notary public. FS Form 1522 specifically allows notarization, and the notary’s seal or stamp is required.
Officers and employees of banks, trust companies, and credit unions, using the institution’s official seal or signature guarantee stamp. If the institution is an authorized paying agent for savings bonds, a legible paying agent stamp works.
Members of Treasury-recognized signature guarantee programs (STAMP, SEMP, or MSP medallion stamps), though these programs are mainly built for security transfers.
Commissioned or warrant officers of the U.S. Armed Forces, for military personnel, civilian field employees, and family members.
A judge or clerk of a U.S. court, with the court’s seal.

The simplest option for most people is a bank or credit union. Call ahead. Not every branch has a certifying officer on duty every day.

If You’re Outside the United States

A U.S. diplomatic or consular representative at an embassy or consulate can certify your signature under the office’s seal. Officers at foreign branches of U.S.-incorporated banks can also certify, using the institution’s seal or stamp.⁴

A foreign notary or other oath-administering official can certify, but only if a U.S. diplomatic or consular official also attests to that person’s authority and jurisdiction. In countries not party to the Hague Convention, that added attestation is always required. Non-U.S. citizens must also include IRS Form W-8BEN with the submission.⁵

Redeeming Bonds Registered to a Minor

A parent can cash bonds registered in a minor child’s name only when three things are true: the child isn’t old enough to sign for payment, you are the child’s parent, and the child lives with you or you have legal custody.⁶

Include a written statement on the form certifying that you’re the child’s parent, that the child lives with you (or that you have legal custody), the child’s age and that they’re not old enough to make the request, and the child’s Social Security Number. Sign your own name followed by “on behalf of [child’s name], a minor.” The certification rules still apply. Wait to sign until you’re with a certifying officer.⁶

If the Owner Has Died

When the owner is deceased, who signs FS Form 1522 depends on how the bond was registered and where the estate stands. A surviving co-owner or named beneficiary can request payment as the sole owner after providing proof of death. If the estate is being administered, the executor or administrator can request payment to the estate or distribute the bonds to those entitled. Treasury requires letters of appointment dated within one year of the date you submit them. Older letters mean going back to probate court for a fresh copy before Treasury will process the request.⁷

If the estate has already been settled through court proceedings, the people entitled to the bonds can request payment directly, using a certified copy of the court-approved final accounting or the decree of distribution.⁷ Submitting the form as the wrong party, even by mistake, will get it rejected, so confirm who has the legal right to sign before you start.

If the Bonds Are Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed

You can’t submit FS Form 1522 without the physical bonds. If yours are lost, stolen, or destroyed, file FS Form 1048 first or alongside. FS Form 1048 asks for the serial numbers and total count, the circumstances of the loss, and a signature made in front of a certifying officer or notary.⁸

If you don’t have the serial numbers, the Treasury Hunt search tool that used to help locate bond records is no longer available as of September 2025. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, Treasury now shares information about matured, unredeemed bonds with state unclaimed property programs. Start your search at unclaimed.org, run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, with the state where the original purchaser lived at the time of purchase. States can only use this data to help locate owners, not to seize the bonds.⁹

If you live in a federally declared disaster area and your bonds were destroyed, FS Form 1048 has a streamlined path: complete only portions 1, 5, 6B, and 7, write “DISASTER” at the top of the first page and on the envelope, and mail it to the same address used for FS Form 1522.⁸

Where to Mail It and What Happens Next

Mail the completed form, the physical bonds, and any supporting documents (letters of appointment, death certificate, power of attorney, FS Form 1048) to:

Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150³

Use a trackable mailing method. You’re sending original bonds and possibly original court documents, and replacing them if the package disappears creates real delays. After Treasury completes its review, payment arrives either as a check to the address on your form or as a direct deposit to the account listed in Item 2. Direct deposits generally show up within a few business days of approval. Treasury doesn’t publish a guaranteed processing timeline, so plan for several weeks and contact Treasury Retail Securities Services if you haven’t heard anything after two months.¹⁰

Tax Reporting After Redemption

Savings bond interest is subject to federal income tax but exempt from state and local income taxes. It’s also exempt from federal estate, gift, and excise taxes and from state estate and inheritance taxes.¹¹

You’ll receive IRS Form 1099-INT for the taxable interest. When Treasury redeems bonds through FS Form 1522, the 1099-INT typically arrives by January 31 of the following year.¹¹

Series HH holders face an extra wrinkle. If you originally exchanged Series E, EE bonds, or savings notes for Series HH and deferred reporting the accrued interest at that time, that deferred interest becomes taxable when the HH bonds are redeemed or reach final maturity. The bond carries a legend showing the portion of the issue price that represents deferred interest.¹² Because all Series HH bonds have now reached final maturity, that deferred interest is reportable. If you haven’t reported it, check with your tax preparer or against prior returns before filing again.

1
TreasuryDirect. HH Bonds
2
TreasuryDirect. Power of Attorney United States Savings Bonds and Notes
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TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1522 – Special Form of Request for Payment of United States Savings and Retirement Securities
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TreasuryDirect. Signature Certification
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TreasuryDirect. Cashing Paper Bonds Outside the United States
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TreasuryDirect. Cashing Paper Bonds for a Young Child
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eCFR. 31 CFR Part 353 – Regulations Governing Definitive United States Savings Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1048 – Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt
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TreasuryDirect. Contact Us
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TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds
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eCFR. 31 CFR Part 352 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series HH