About Tom Adams Expertise I can answer questions about US Savings Bonds - current value, current interest rates, how to get them redeemed, what to do if they are lost or stolen, how to buy them online, etc...
Experience Experience in the area I am the author of the best-selling book about Savings Bonds,
Savings Bond Advisor.
Expert: Tom Adams Date: 12/2/2007 Subject: savings bonds held hostage
Question Dear Mr. Adams,
My mother took out savings bonds for my sister and me when we were little. We were not raised her, but by my aunt, her sister. According to my aunt, her name is on the bonds, whatever that means. She has been keeping the bonds in her safety deposit box. She has given my sister, who recently married, her bond(s), but refuses to give me mine and says that since they're in her safety deposit box, I'll never see them until she decides to give them to me. I am 22 years old and getting ready to graduate from college. I don't know what sort of bonds they are; I don't know very much about them at all. What I want to know is: Can my aunt legally withhold my savings bonds from me? What should I do? What can I do?
Answer Hi Kelly - If your aunt's name is on the bonds there's not anything you can do to get control of them. The only thing I can suggest is that you write and ask the Treasury if there are Savings Bonds in your name. If there are, that will at least let you know what the deal is. There's more info on how to do that here:
