Senate Bill 827 filed in Congress would reunite millions of Americans with matured U.S. Savings Bonds, according to State Treasurer Dennis McKinney. The "Unclaimed Savings Bond Act of 2009", sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (W.V.) and Pat Roberts (Kan.), creates a state-federal partnership to help find the owners of more than 40 million savings bonds with a value of more than $16.5 billion.
"The people of Kansas are holding millions of dollars in savings bonds that have matured and no longer earn interest, but the records of these bonds are not easily available," said McKinney.
Kansas already operates a successful unclaimed property program that helps reunite people with lost bank accounts, insurance policies, shares of stock, and other assets. The focus of the program is locating the owners of missing property. In 2007, Kansas returned over $11.3 million in unclaimed property to its rightful owners. The "Unclaimed Savings Bond Act of 2009" would leverage state unclaimed property programs across the country to make people aware of their unredeemed, matured savings bonds.
"I am very pleased to join my colleagues across the nation in supporting this bill that would partner the federal government with state unclaimed property programs to find the owners of these bonds," McKinney said. "There is no better time than now to reunite Americans will billions of dollars in savings bonds that are currently sitting unclaimed and earning nothing for their owners."
Senate Bill 827 authorizes a pilot program for the U.S. Treasury to digitize the records of matured savings bonds and create a searchable database. It also creates block grants for states to notify owners and help them redeem their bonds. As always, individual bond holders would have the option of cashing in their bonds or continuing to hold them.
The Kansas State Treasurer's Office offers a web site where citizens can search for unclaimed property and find out how to file a claim, free of charge, at: www.kansascash.com.
