PARKERSBURG - At least $16.5 billion in unredeemed Savings Bonds would be reunited with their owners or heirs if a bill sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is passed by Congress.
The bond-recovery bill was introduced by Rockefeller and Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and instructs the treasury department to convert its Savings Bonds records stored in Parkersburg to a digital format that can be more easily searched by electronic means and on the Web. About 40 million bonds have never been redeemed, the senators said.
The bill is supported by the state treasurer in West Virginia where Treasurer John Perdue believes $125 million could be owed to residents. The treasurer's office has been active in reuniting residents with their lost assets.
"We're in the business of finding people who have been separated from their property," Deputy Treasurer Nelson Sorah said.
The treasury department, of which the Bureau of Public Debt is part, is reluctant to release the information and from its perspective believes it's an outlay of cash rather than a payment of money owed, Sorah said.
"The problem is they just don't want to pay out the money," Sorah said. "We have a terrible time trying to convince them that it's not their money."
The interest earned from the redemption also is taxable, Sorah said.
The bill establishes a pilot program to put the records in a digital format and locate the owners of matured unredeemed savings bonds using methods developed by the states to aid residents find unclaimed assets. Information on the bondholders is in 5 billion issuance records on microfilm that are not indexed.
The information will be given to participating states in a format that can be searched on the Web. States will receive a grant of $30 for each bond referred, mail a notice to the owner's most likely address and include the property in the states' unclaimed property database.
From $16.5 billion to $17 billion is unredeemed, Sorah said. The amount increases as more bonds mature and are not redeemed, he said.
"It's growing everyday," he said.
Most of the bonds are Series E first issued in 1941 and reached full maturity in 1981. Series E were discontinued 40 years ago.
"Millions of Americans are holders of unclaimed savings bonds valuing more than $16.5 billion and many simply don't know about it," Rockefeller said. "We need a better system in place to track down these rightful owners and return the proceeds on their unredeemed bonds, and that's just what my legislation would do."
Rockefeller said using existing state programs to return unclaimed property ia the most efficient way.
" I believe the best way to improve the system and put money back in people's wallets is to use existing state unclaimed property programs, which are proven to work very well in returning assets to their rightful owners," he said.
