America’s Forgotten Savings Bonds: 102.9 Million Matured Bonds Nobody Has Cashed

Disclaimer: General educational research only — not legal or tax advice. Treasury rules and forms change; check TreasuryDirect or talk to an estate planning attorney about your situation.

Estate Planning Data & Research → America’s Forgotten Savings Bonds

Somewhere in a desk drawer, a safe-deposit box or a shoebox of old papers, there’s a good chance a savings bond is waiting for someone who doesn’t know it exists.

Paper U.S. savings bonds stop earning interest when they reach final maturity, but they never expire. Treasury’s own records show more than 100 million of them have matured and were never cashed. Many belonged to people who have since died. Their families often don’t know the bonds exist, or don’t know how to claim them.

And since September 30, 2025, the government’s free lookup tool for these bonds, Treasury Hunt, is gone.

We pulled Treasury’s monthly savings bond and public debt data to show how many bonds are out there, which series they come from, and how the total has changed over 26 years. Then we walked through what heirs can do now.

Bonds are one more reason to keep a written list of what you own and who should get it. That list is what a will or trust is built on. See whether you need a will, a living trust or both.

Key findings

• 102,886,481 paper savings bonds and savings notes have reached final maturity and haven’t been cashed (as of Aug. 31, 2026). That’s every series Treasury tracks in its “matured unredeemed debt” report.
• They’re worth about $34.7 billion. Treasury’s Monthly Statement of the Public Debt lists $34.73 billion in matured U.S. savings securities still outstanding as of Sept. 30, 2026.
• The pile keeps growing. The count rose by 3.1 million bonds in the past year (from 99,765,824 in August 2025) and is nearly five times the 20.9 million recorded in August 2000.
• Four out of five are Series EE bonds. 82,450,494 matured Series EE bonds remain uncashed, 80% of the total. Paper EE bonds issued from January 1980 through August 1996 have now passed their 30-year final maturity. Another 19,790,344 are Series E “war bond”-era bonds issued from 1941 to 1980, all of which stopped earning interest by mid-2010.
• 5.7% of matured EE bonds were never cashed, compared with 0.43% of Series E bonds. Older bonds have simply had more time to be found and redeemed.
• The dollar total peaked in 2023. Matured savings securities outstanding hit $39.0 billion in August 2023 and have drifted down to $34.9 billion in August 2026, even as the number of bonds keeps rising. That matches Treasury’s 2021 projection that the balance would peak near $39 billion in 2023 and then hover between $30 billion and $36 billion through 2033.
• The search tool is gone. TreasuryDirect says the Treasury Hunt tool “is no longer available” as of Sept. 30, 2025. Families now have to file a claim form if they think a lost bond exists.

Uncashed matured bonds by series

As of Aug. 31, 2026. “Matured pieces issued” counts every bond in that series that has reached final maturity; for Series EE that’s only bonds issued from January 1980 through August 1996. Paper Series I bonds don’t appear yet: the first ones, sold in September 1998, reach 30-year final maturity in 2028.

How the total has grown since 2000

Dollar figures are Treasury’s “Total Matured United States Savings Securities” line from the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt. Treasury doesn’t publish a dollar value for each series in the matured unredeemed debt report, so the count and dollar columns come from two related Treasury tables.

Why so many bonds go unclaimed

Treasury studied this question itself. In a 2021 report responding to an executive order, it listed the problems it runs into when it tries to find bond owners:

• Deceased owners, especially when no beneficiary is listed on the bond.
• Heirs who are hard to find after name changes, moves or divorce.
• Bonds bought as gifts, where the recipient may never have known.
• Complex registrations, such as trusts and estates.
• Old records: Social Security numbers weren’t required on bonds bought before 1974, and the oldest bonds may list only a city and state.

When Treasury contacted 26,000 owners of matured bonds in 2004, it found that 70% had the bonds and chose not to cash them, 20% had them but didn’t know they’d stopped earning interest, and 10% didn’t know they owned bonds or couldn’t find them.

Paper is the key. Electronic savings bonds held in TreasuryDirect are paid out automatically at maturity. Paper bonds just sit until someone presents them. Banks stopped selling paper savings bonds on Dec. 31, 2011, and new EE bonds are now electronic only, but tens of millions of older paper bonds are still out there.

What’s changing: the SECURE 2.0 Act

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 requires Treasury to give each state information on certain matured, unredeemed bonds with an address in that state. That covers bonds more than three years past final maturity, so states can help locate owners. Treasury published its final rule on Dec. 18, 2024. Under that rule, a state has to request the records and sign an information-sharing agreement first, and the data can’t be released to the public. Treasury’s 2024 report to Congress said it had digitized bond records back to October 1957, covering 97% of matured unredeemed debt.

There is no public, searchable list. Treasury has also warned about savings bond fraud. It identified at least $50 million in known fraud as of September 2024, so be wary of anyone offering to “find” your bonds for a fee.

If a parent or relative has died: how heirs claim savings bonds

1. Look for the paper. Check safe-deposit boxes, files, desk drawers, books and old greeting cards. Bonds were often given at births, graduations and holidays.

2. Check how the bond is registered.

• Named beneficiary (a “payable on death” or “POD” bond): the surviving beneficiary can usually cash it at a bank that redeems savings bonds, or by mail, with proof of identity and a certified copy of the death certificate. The bond doesn’t go through the will or probate.
• Co-owner: a surviving co-owner becomes the sole owner.
• Owner only, no beneficiary: the bond belongs to the estate.

3. Use the right Treasury form.

• FS Form 1522: request payment for paper savings bonds.
• FS Form 5336: for an estate being settled without a court case. Treasury’s form says it covers a decedent’s Treasury securities and related payments of up to $100,000 total. Above that, the estate generally needs a court-appointed representative.
• FS Form 1455: for an executor or administrator to request distribution of a decedent’s securities.
• FS Form 1048: claim for lost, stolen or destroyed bonds. This is now the main route if you believe bonds exist but can’t find the paper.

4. Don’t wait for interest. A bond that has passed final maturity earns nothing more. Holding it longer gains nothing.

What this means for your own plan

A savings bond is easy to lose track of because it’s a piece of paper, and it may be decades old. Three simple steps help:

• List your bonds (series, serial number, issue date, registration) in the same place you keep your will or trust documents. Our estate planning checklist has a spot for this.
• Add a beneficiary or check the one you named. A POD beneficiary lets bonds skip probate. See money that skips the will for how beneficiary designations and your will fit together.
• If you have a living trust, you can ask Treasury to reissue paper bonds to the trust (FS Form 1851) so your successor trustee can handle them. See funding your trust.

If an estate is small, a small estate affidavit may handle the rest of the property, but Treasury uses its own forms for bonds.

Related: Money that skips the will · Cost of dying without a will, by state · Settling an estate

Methodology

Counts. U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data API, “Matured Unredeemed Debt” (v1/accounting/od/savings_bonds_mud), record date Aug. 31, 2026 (latest available Oct. 8, 2026). We summed bonds outstanding across all 13 series. The same figures appear in the “Paper Savings Bonds Issues, Redemptions, and Maturities by Series” table (savings_bonds_report) as “Matured Unredeemed Bonds Count.” Counts are pieces (individual bonds and notes), not dollars or people. One person can hold many bonds.

Dollars. Fiscal Data API, Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, Table III nonmarketable detail (v1/debt/mspd/mspd_table_3_nonmarket), line “Total Matured United States Savings Securities,” in millions of dollars. Latest: Sept. 30, 2026 ($34,729.1 million). For the yearly table we used August values to line up with the piece counts.

Maturity rules. TreasuryDirect’s Savings Securities Maturity Chart and historical bond pages. Series EE bonds earn interest for 30 years. Series E bonds earned interest for 40 years if issued before December 1965 and 30 years after. Series HH bonds earned interest for 20 years, and the last ones matured in August 2024.

What this doesn’t measure. Treasury doesn’t publish matured, unredeemed bonds by state, and there’s no public count of how many belonged to people who have died. Some owners hold matured bonds on purpose.

Frequently asked questions

Do savings bonds expire?

No. Paper bonds stop earning interest at final maturity, but they can still be cashed. Treasury calls them “matured unredeemed debt.”

How do I find out if a deceased parent had savings bonds?

Start with their papers and safe-deposit box. Treasury Hunt was retired on Sept. 30, 2025, so if you believe bonds exist but can’t find them, Treasury points people to its forms page. That generally means FS Form 1048 (lost, stolen or destroyed bonds), with whatever details you have.

Does a will control who gets a savings bond?

Only if the bond is registered to the owner alone. A bond with a named POD beneficiary or a surviving co-owner passes to that person, not through the will.

Can I cash an inherited savings bond at a bank?

Often yes, if the bank redeems savings bonds and you’re the named beneficiary or surviving co-owner with a certified death certificate. Some banks only redeem bonds for their own customers. Otherwise you can mail the bonds with FS Form 1522 and supporting documents.

What if the estate is small and there’s no probate?

Treasury’s FS Form 5336 lets a voluntary representative handle a decedent’s Treasury securities worth up to $100,000 total without a court-appointed executor, following Treasury’s order of precedence.

Are inherited savings bonds taxable?

Savings bond interest is subject to federal income tax but not state or local income tax. Most owners defer reporting the interest until the bond is cashed or reaches final maturity, though some choose to report it each year. The bond’s value also counts for federal estate tax and state estate or inheritance taxes. Ask a tax professional whose return should report deferred interest after a death.

Sources

U.S. government public-domain data and official Treasury pages only.

Data (pulled 2026-10-08)

• U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data API — Matured Unredeemed Debt: https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v1/accounting/od/savings_bonds_mud (record date 2026-08-31; full history from 2000).
• Fiscal Data — Paper Savings Bonds Issues, Redemptions, and Maturities by Series: https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v1/accounting/od/savings_bonds_report (cross-check of matured unredeemed counts).
• Fiscal Data — Piece Information by Series: https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v1/accounting/od/savings_bonds_pcs .
• Fiscal Data — Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, Table III nonmarketable detail, line “Total Matured United States Savings Securities”: https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v1/debt/mspd/mspd_table_3_nonmarket (2026-09-30: $34,729.073684 million).
• Dataset pages: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/savings-bonds-issued-redeemed/ and https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/monthly-statement-public-debt/

Treasury rules and context (checked 2026-10-08)

• Treasury Hunt retirement notice (“As of September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt® tool is no longer available”): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/treasury-hunt/
• Savings bond forms (FS 1048, 1455, 1522, 1851, 5336): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/forms/
• FS Form 5336 ($100,000 threshold for estates settled without administration): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav5336.pdf
• Savings Securities Maturity Chart: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/savpdp0027.pdf
• Historical and retired bonds (issue dates, Series E maturity periods): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/historical-retired-bonds/
• EE bonds (30-year interest, electronic paid automatically, paper issued 1980–2012, tax treatment): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/ee-bonds/
• HH bonds (all reached final maturity August 2024): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/hh-bonds/
• Timeline (OTC paper sales ended Dec 31, 2011): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/research-center/history-of-savings-bond/timeline/
• Treasury, “Report on the Redemption of Savings Bonds: Response to Executive Order 13968” (June 2021): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/files/savings-bonds/mud-executive-order-report.pdf (projection of ~$39B peak in 2023 and $30–36B range 2023–2033; 2004 outreach 70/20/10; reasons bonds go unclaimed)
• Treasury, “2024 Report to Congress Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022” (March 2025): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/files/savings-bonds/secure-2.0-act-2024-report-to-congress.pdf (state data sharing; final rule 89 Fed. Reg. 102735, Dec 18, 2024; 97% of MUD digitized; $50M known fraud as of Sept 2024)
• Statute: 31 U.S.C. 3105(f) (SECURE 2.0 Act, Division T of Pub. L. 117-328)

Cite this data

You’re welcome to reuse the tables or chart with a link back to this page. Treasury data is public domain.

Published October 8, 2026 by Family Estate Guide. Data vintage: Treasury Matured Unredeemed Debt, Aug. 31, 2026; Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, Sept. 30, 2026; pulled Oct. 8, 2026. Editorial standards.