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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Treasurer Zweifel Supports
Federal Legislation to Help Missourians Find Unredeemed Savings Bonds JEFFERSON CITY- Senate Bill 827 filed in Congress would reunite millions of Americans with matured U.S. Savings Bonds, according to State Treasurer Clint Zweifel. The "Unclaimed Savings Bond Act of 2009", sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) 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, with hundreds of millions going to Missourians. Treasurer Zweifel sent a letter of support for the state-federal partnership to Missouri's Congressional delegation. "Missourians are holding an estimated $366 million in savings bonds that have matured and no longer earn interest, but the records of these bonds are not easily available," Treasurer Zweifel said." In this economic crisis, there is no better time than now to reunite Missourians with millions of dollars in savings bonds sitting unclaimed and earning nothing for their owners, so I have lent my support to this effort." Missouri already operates a successful unclaimed property program that reunites 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 fiscal year 2008, the State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property Division returned more than $34.5 million in 65,000 accounts to the rightful owners. The "Unclaimed Savings Bond Act of 2009" would use state unclaimed property programs across the country to make people aware of their unredeemed, matured savings bonds. 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. Treasurer Zweifel's Unclaimed Property Division State Treasurer Clint
Zweifel'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.showmemoney.com |
Unclaimed PropertySearch the Unclaimed Property Division's Database of Unclaimed Property:Last name first followed by a space
and
a few letters of the first name. |