My dad has over 40 paper savings bonds in his safe deposit box. He currently lives in an assisted living community and has dementia. Before he declines further, I wanted to add beneficiaries to these bonds to avoid probate once he passes away. Has anyone dealt with the treasury to convert paper bonds to electronic? From what I understand, my dad has to sign all of the bonds and have his signature notarized by a bank official, then I need to mail the bonds to the treasury and have them converted to electronic bonds (to be deposited into a treasury direct online account). Once in the account, a beneficiary can be added. The process seems cumbersome and I was wondering if anyone had advice regarding this issue. Thank you.
I contacted the bank where the bonds are held (in a safe deposit box) and was told that my dad has to come in and sign all the bonds. They will not let me sign as POA. I wish I had planned better while my dad was still independent. I guess hindsight is 20/20.
I think you can go on line to a the treasury and put the bond info in and it will tell u what it is now worth. If face value is 100 and you have 40 than thats only 4000. If mature (EEs I think r 18 yrs) than Dad will pay taxes on $2000 which is the interest made since he paid $50 for a $100 bond. For that amount I would see if I could cash in as a POA to go towards his care. Beneficiary or not, Medicaid will say it can be cashed in to help pay towards his care.
I had to open an account with Treasury Direct first. It's empty until the paper bonds arrive and are transferred by the government. Since I had a trust I had to send in a copy of the trust and other documents first, so you don't have to mess with that. I believe what you described is accurate above. I tried to refresh my memory by looking through the massive list of forms and my eyes ended up crossing first. I did note one form SF 2513 was a Power of Attorney form that included placing the bonds into electronic form. There's an accompanying publication, 0105, that my help. That may make it easier for you both and allow you to send off the bonds and place in beneficiaries as your dad directs.
If you have any questions, there's a link that you can send questions to and they'll answer you via email. I had to do this several times as the website didn't answer my question. I had be extremely pointed in my questions, even having to write, "You're still not answering my question." All the responder did was print their standard answer to my non-standard but perfectly reasonable question. I finally got the answer.
Once the process is final and you can see each bond's current value it's rather nice, plus it's so easy to cash them if needed. Good luck.