$30B in U.S. Savings Bonds are Unclaimed, House Urges More Data Sharing

A total of 25 members of the House of Representatives, led by Representatives Sean Casten, D-Illinois, and Ann Wagner, R-Missouri, wrote to the Treasury Department on Thursday, urging them to share more data to help unclaimed savings bonds to be claimed. There are approximately $30 billion in unclaimed federal bonds.

Section 122 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 requires the Treasury to share information with state governments so that they can use that data to locate the bond owners in accordance with their standards for abandoned property recovery.

In October 2023, Treasury proposed a rule on how to share relevant data. The letter argues that many of the restrictions in the proposal are unreasonably burdensome: “The proposed rule includes restrictions that would require states to rely solely on Treasury’s redemption processes, which would make it difficult for them to support claims. The proposal also prohibits states from releasing information to the public without written approval [from Treasury], a condition that seems unlikely to be granted.”

The letter then urged the Treasury to modify the proposal to “allow states to share information online and collaborate to align the bond program and states unclaimed property laws to maximize bond recoveries and redemptions.”

Many states use unclaimed property web pages to help their residents, and so not permitting them to share information online would undermine this “proven and trusted reunification tool.”

Bond owners can become unaccounted for if they die, move and do not update contact information, or lose relevant documents and are unable to prove ownership of the savings bonds.