Sometimes amongst the deceased’s papers will be found a certificate relating to U.S. Treasury Bonds, usually bought several years ago when the U.S. Dollar was considered the strongest currency, and the U.S. Treasury paid a good rate of interest to attract buyers of U.S. Bonds, especially overseas investors, and the U.S. did not charge withholding taxes on the interest that was paid, or capital gains taxes on the increase in value of the Bonds (if any increase occurred).
The problem now is how to redeem those U.S. Bonds?
The U.S. Treasury has decided in its wisdom to pass the redemption problem to U.S. Banks, and frequently will refer the redemption issue to the bank that originally issued the bond on behalf of the U.S. Government. The problem now is which bank do you go to, when the original bank is no longer in existence having been wound up in the banking crisis, and been taken over?
We recently had a case where we started out with Continental Illinois Bank, which later on in its life was taken over by Bank of America. After several months of trying, it appeared that U.S. Bank (nothing to do with the U.S. Government) is now responsible for redeeming U.S. Treasury Bonds; and fortunately Bank of America were most helpful once we found the persons responsible for redeeming bonds, as they referred us to U.S. Bank which was responsible for redeeming our client’s particular bonds.
We are therefore are able to assist you redeeming your (or the deceased’s) bonds.