FS Form 5188: Completing the Savings Bond Power of Attorney

FS Form 5188 is the Treasury’s durable power of attorney for savings bonds and other Treasury securities. You download it from TreasuryDirect.gov, fill it out in ink without a single correction, sign it in front of an authorized certifying officer at a bank or credit union, and mail it with any supporting documents to Treasury Retail Securities Services in Minneapolis. Once accepted, the person you name can cash bonds, collect interest, buy new securities, and handle most other business tied to your Treasury holdings, and that authority survives if you later become incapacitated.¹

What You Are Actually Signing

The form creates a legal relationship between you (the grantor) and the person or organization you appoint (the attorney-in-fact). It covers savings bonds, Treasury notes, and securities held in TreasuryDirect accounts or in paper form. By default the authority is broad: payment changes, interest collection, redemptions, transfers, assignments, ACH purchases, reinvestments, and completion of tax documents.¹

The word “durable” is the point. The authority stays in effect if you become disabled or incapacitated, and ends only when you revoke it in writing.¹ For a TreasuryDirect electronic account, a durable power of attorney lets your agent transact online; a limited power of attorney restricts the agent to offline transactions covering only what that document specifies.²

Two limits worth knowing before you sign. An attorney-in-fact cannot reissue paper savings bonds under any circumstances. And unless you check Box C (explained below), your agent cannot transfer securities into their own name or make gifts of them.¹

Filling In Each Section

Download the current version from the TreasuryDirect forms page. Print it and complete every field in ink or by typewriter. Do not leave any field blank. Do not cross out, white-out, or overwrite a mistake; the Bureau rejects any form with alterations. If you slip, print a fresh copy and start over.¹

Item 1: Appointment

Enter your full legal name as the grantor, then the full name of the person or organization you are appointing. Match your name exactly to your government-issued ID. A mismatch will delay processing.

Item 2: Authority

Item 2 has three checkboxes. Which ones you mark determines what your agent can actually do.

Box A covers your own securities. Marking it authorizes any transaction Treasury regulations allow on your personal savings bonds and Treasury securities, plus related tax documents. Box A alone does not permit self-transfers or gifts.
Box B covers fiduciary securities. Marking it authorizes the agent to act on securities belonging to a trust, probate estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or similar estate for which you serve as fiduciary. Check both A and B if you want both personal and fiduciary holdings covered.
Box C covers gifts and self-transfers. Marking it lets the agent make gifts of your securities to others and transfer securities into their own account. This is a significant grant of power. Think carefully before checking it.¹

Most people filing for ordinary estate planning check only Box A. The form’s instructions recommend consulting a lawyer if you are unsure about scope.

Item 3: Term and Durability

This section is pre-printed. It confirms the power of attorney continues until you revoke it in writing and survives any later disability or incapacity. Read it before you sign; nothing to fill in.

Item 4: Signature

Do not sign yet. Your signature has to happen in the physical presence of an authorized certifying officer. Alongside the signature you will supply your printed name, home address, TreasuryDirect or Legacy Treasury Direct account number (if you have one), Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number, daytime phone, and email.¹

Extra Papers for Trustees and Organizations

Signing as a trustee means attaching specific pages from the trust instrument:

The page showing the name and date of the trust
The page showing the trustee’s authority to appoint an agent or attorney-in-fact
The signature page

If the grantor is an organization rather than an individual, submit a corporate resolution authorizing the appointment. Treasury provides FS Form 1010 for that purpose, also available on the TreasuryDirect forms page.¹

If you checked Box B, the Bureau may request additional evidence of your appointment and qualification as a fiduciary. Have copies of court orders or letters of appointment on hand in case they ask.

Getting the Signature Certified

Treasury does not accept a plain notary. You need an authorized certifying officer. The easiest option is an officer or authorized employee at your bank, trust company, or credit union.³ Officers at Federal Reserve Banks, U.S. judges and court clerks, and commissioned military officers (for service members and their families) can also certify. The Commissioner of the Fiscal Service may authorize others case by case.²

The certifying officer watches you sign, verifies your identity with a government photo ID, and applies an official seal or stamp. If the institution participates in a signature guarantee program, the officer uses that program’s Medallion stamp. Treasury recognizes three: the Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program (STAMP), the Stock Exchange Medallion Program (SEMP), and the NYSE Medallion Signature Program (MSP).⁴

If the officer has no seal or stamp available, they can substitute a letter on institutional letterhead giving their name, title, and authority to certify.² The officer also has to enter the name of the person who appeared and the date. Blanks there are a common reason for rejection.

Where to Send It

Mail the completed and certified form, without the instruction page, along with any supporting documents, to:

Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150¹

Certified mail with return receipt gives you a tracking record. The Bureau does not publish a specific processing timeline, and its contact page notes that heavy volume affects response times. If something is missing or does not match Treasury’s records, they will reach out by mail.⁵ Keep copies of everything you send. Treasury does not return the power of attorney document or the legal evidence you submit with it.

Reasons the Form Gets Rejected

A rejected form means a fresh copy and another trip to the bank. The recurring problems:

Any alteration or correction on the form. Cross-outs, white-out, and overwritten text all trigger automatic rejection.
Stamped or photocopied signatures. Every signature, yours and the officer’s, must be an original in ink.
Signing before you reach the certifying officer. Walking in with a pre-signed form means the officer cannot certify it.
Blank fields in the certification block. The officer has to fill in the name of the person who appeared and the date.
Missing trust excerpts or missing corporate resolution when either applies.¹

Revoking or Ending the Authority

You can cancel the authority at any time by submitting a written revocation that is either notarized or certified. Send it to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service at the same Minneapolis address. Both the grantor and the attorney-in-fact are responsible for notifying Treasury of any changes or revocations.¹

The durability clause means the form does not expire on its own while you are alive. Under general legal principles, a power of attorney terminates at the grantor’s death, and the executor or administrator of the estate then takes over. Treasury’s own disclaimer states that the Bureau is not liable for any loss, cost, or expense resulting from transactions your attorney-in-fact conducts while the power of attorney is active.

When your agent goes to cash bonds on your behalf, they will typically also complete FS Form 1522 (Special Form of Request for Payment) and sign it in their fiduciary capacity in front of a certifying officer.⁶

1
TreasuryDirect. Durable Power of Attorney for Securities and Savings Bonds Transactions (FS Form 5188)
2
eCFR. 31 CFR Part 363 – Regulations Governing Securities Held in TreasuryDirect
3
eCFR. 31 CFR 360.55 – Individuals Authorized to Certify
4
TreasuryDirect. Signature Certification
5
TreasuryDirect. Contact Us
6
TreasuryDirect. Power of Attorney – United States Savings Bonds and Notes (FS Form 0105)