How you cash savings bonds after the owner’s death depends entirely on how each bond is registered. If your name is on the bond as a co-owner or pay-on-death beneficiary, you can redeem it directly with a death certificate and the right Treasury form. If the deceased was the sole name on the bond, it belongs to the estate, and either a court-appointed representative or a qualifying family member has to handle it. The forms, the proof you need, and the tax bill at the end all follow from that starting point.
Start With How the Bond Is Registered
Pull the bonds out and look at the names printed on the face. Every U.S. savings bond falls into one of three registrations, and each has its own path.
- Two names joined by “or” (for example, “John Jones or Ella Jones”) is a co-owner bond. When one co-owner dies, the survivor becomes sole owner automatically.
- One name followed by “payable on death to” another person is a POD or beneficiary bond. The named beneficiary takes full ownership at the owner’s death.
- A single name with no co-owner and no beneficiary makes the bond part of the deceased owner’s estate.
For co-owned and POD bonds, Treasury regulations say the surviving person “will be recognized as the sole and absolute owner” and the bond is treated “as though the bond were registered in the name of the survivor alone.”1eCFR. 31 CFR Part 315 – Regulations Governing U.S. Savings Bonds2eCFR. 31 CFR Part 360 – Regulations Governing Definitive United States Savings Bonds, Series I A will that tries to send a co-owned or POD bond to someone else has no effect. The registration on the certificate controls.
Check What the Bonds Are Worth First
Before you redeem anything, look up the current value. TreasuryDirect’s free Savings Bond Calculator takes the series, denomination, and issue date and returns the current redemption value, total interest earned, the interest rate, the next accrual date, and the final maturity date.3TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Calculator For older bonds, the face value printed on the paper has almost nothing to do with what the bond is actually worth after decades of compounding.
The calculator handles paper Series EE, E, I bonds, and Savings Notes. It also lets you look up values as of past dates back to January 1996, which is useful when you need a date-of-death value for tax purposes. Electronic bonds don’t appear in the calculator; their values show up once you gain access to the deceased’s TreasuryDirect account.
Cashing Bonds When You Are the Co-Owner or Beneficiary
If your name is on the paper EE or I bond, the easiest route is to walk into a bank or credit union that redeems savings bonds. Call ahead. Ask what identification they require, what documents they want to see, and whether they cap the dollar amount they will cash in one visit.4TreasuryDirect. Inheriting Savings Bonds as a Named Co-Owner or Beneficiary Smaller amounts often get handled on the spot.
For larger redemptions, or if the bank turns you away, you send the bonds to Treasury with FS Form 1522, the “Special Form of Request for Payment of United States Savings and Retirement Securities.”5TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1522 – Special Form of Request for Payment Enter the bond serial numbers, the names exactly as printed on the certificates, your payment preference, and your bank routing and account numbers if you want direct deposit. Include a certified copy of the death certificate.
Your signature on Form 1522 has to be certified, and a regular notary stamp is not enough. Treasury accepts signature guarantees through STAMP, SEMP, or the NYSE Medallion Signature Program, and also accepts certification by an authorized officer at a bank or credit union that acts as a Treasury paying agent.6TreasuryDirect. Signature Certification Ask at the bank before you sign.
HH bonds don’t work through the bank counter. Send them straight to Treasury with FS Form 1522 and a certified copy of the death certificate.4TreasuryDirect. Inheriting Savings Bonds as a Named Co-Owner or Beneficiary For electronic bonds sitting in the deceased person’s TreasuryDirect account, contact TreasuryDirect. They will place a hold on the account and walk you through transfer or redemption.7TreasuryDirect. Death of a Savings Bond Owner
Cashing Bonds That Belong to the Estate
When the deceased was the only name on the bond, it becomes estate property. Two paths, depending on whether the estate is going through court administration.
If a Court Has Appointed an Executor or Administrator
The court-appointed representative can cash the bonds for the estate using FS Form 1522. Along with the form, include a certified copy of the death certificate and the court letters of appointment. The letters have to be certified, under court seal, and dated within one year of when you send them in.
If the Estate Is Not Going Through Court
For smaller estates that skip probate, Treasury lets a qualifying family member act as a “voluntary representative” using FS Form 5336.8TreasuryDirect. Non-Administered Estates Two hard limits apply. The total value of the deceased person’s Treasury securities cannot exceed $100,000 as of the date of death. If it does, the estate has to go through court administration.9TreasuryDirect. FS Form 5336 – Disposition of Treasury Securities Belonging to a Decedent’s Estate Being Settled Without Administration And only certain relatives can serve, in a strict order:
- Surviving spouse
- Child of the decedent, if there is no competent surviving spouse
- Descendant of a deceased child, if none of the above are competent
- Parent of the decedent
- Sibling of the decedent
- Descendant of a deceased sibling
- Next of kin under the law of the state where the decedent lived
Signing Form 5336 certifies that no court representative has been or will be appointed and that the estate will not go through formal administration. Include a certified copy of the death certificate.10TreasuryDirect. FS Form 5336
If You Can’t Find the Paper Bonds
Paper certificates get misplaced, water-damaged, or buried in old files. File FS Form 1048, “Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds.” Provide whatever bond details you have, including serial numbers if you can locate them, and describe how the bonds were lost. Include a certified copy of the death certificate. If you are the legal representative of an estate with no surviving co-owner or beneficiary, also include a certified copy of your court letters of appointment. If no legal representative has been appointed, note that on the form and Treasury will provide further instructions.11TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1048 – Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds
If you don’t even know whether the deceased owned bonds, the Treasury Hunt search tool is no longer available as of September 2025. Inquiries about unclaimed Treasury securities now go through individual states’ unclaimed property programs. Start at unclaimed.org for the office in the state where the purchaser lived.12TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt
Where to Mail Paper Bonds and Forms
Everything paper goes to one address:
Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-915013TreasuryDirect. Contact Us
Send by certified or registered mail so you have proof of delivery. Processing generally takes several weeks from the day Treasury receives the package, and busy periods stretch that out. Payment arrives by direct deposit if you provided bank details on the form, or by check if you didn’t.
Reissue Instead of Cashing
You don’t have to cash the bonds. If they still have years to run, you can have them reissued in your name with FS Form 4000 and keep earning interest. When Treasury reissues EE or I bonds today, it converts them from paper to electronic form, so you’ll need to open a free TreasuryDirect account first.4TreasuryDirect. Inheriting Savings Bonds as a Named Co-Owner or Beneficiary
EE and I bonds earn interest for 30 years from their issue date.14TreasuryDirect. EE Bonds If a bond has already reached 30 years, it has stopped earning. There is no reason to reissue it. Cash it.
Federal Tax on the Interest
The purchase price of a savings bond is not taxable, but every dollar of interest it earned is subject to federal income tax. State and local income taxes don’t apply.15TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds
When you cash an inherited bond, the bank or Treasury issues a 1099-INT that shows all the interest the bond earned over its entire life. That figure can overstate what you actually owe, because some of that interest may already have been reported by the original owner in prior years or on the decedent’s final return. Report the full amount from the 1099-INT on Schedule B, then subtract the previously reported portion on a line labeled “U.S. Savings Bond Interest Previously Reported.”16Internal Revenue Service. IRS Publication 559
The Election on the Final Return
Whoever files the decedent’s final income tax return has a choice. They can elect to include all interest earned up to the date of death on that final return. If they do, the beneficiary only owes tax on interest earned after the date of death. If no election is made, the entire amount of accumulated interest becomes taxable income to the beneficiary or the estate when the bond is cashed.
Which choice saves money depends on the brackets involved. If the decedent was in a low bracket in their final year and the beneficiary is in a higher one, reporting on the final return can cut the total tax. If the decedent had a high-income final year and the beneficiary expects less income, deferring may come out ahead. A tax professional can run the comparison, and it is worth the fee when bonds have been accumulating interest for decades.16Internal Revenue Service. IRS Publication 559