FS Form 5394 is the Treasury form you use to claim a deceased person’s savings bonds and other Treasury securities when they didn’t pass automatically to a surviving co-owner or named beneficiary. It works in exactly two situations: the estate went through probate and has been closed by the court, or the estate is being settled under a state small-estate procedure that doesn’t require a court-appointed representative.1TreasuryDirect. Agreement and Request for Disposition of a Decedent’s Treasury Securities Filed correctly, it gets the securities cashed out by direct deposit or reissued into a TreasuryDirect account.
Before doing anything else, confirm the bonds actually belong to the estate. If a bond names a surviving co-owner or beneficiary, it passes directly to that person and never enters the estate at all, and Form 5394 has no role.2TreasuryDirect. Death of a Savings Bond Owner The survivor handles those bonds through a simpler process.
When a Different Form Applies
Picking the wrong form is one of the most common reasons claims stall, so match your situation before you write anything down.
- The estate has never been administered, no court-appointed representative exists, and the total redemption value of the Treasury securities is $100,000 or less: use FS Form 5336, not 5394.3TreasuryDirect. Non-Administered Estates – Savings Bonds
- The estate is open and a court-appointed executor or administrator is still serving: follow the Treasury’s instructions for court-appointed representatives instead.4TreasuryDirect. Court-Appointed Representatives
- The estate has been closed by the court, or is being wrapped up under a state small-estate statute without an appointed representative: Form 5394 is the right one.
Which Securities Form 5394 Covers
The form covers Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, TIPS, Floating Rate Notes, Savings Notes, and all series of savings bonds, including EE, I, E, H, and HH.1TreasuryDirect. Agreement and Request for Disposition of a Decedent’s Treasury Securities One Form 5394 can handle all of them together.
Documents to Gather First
Assembling everything before you start writing prevents the back-and-forth that stretches claims into months.
Bond Details
For each security, you need the serial number, issue date, face amount, and the exact registration showing how the owner’s name appeared. If you have the physical bonds, this information is printed on them. If you don’t, see the lost-bonds section below.
Certified Death Certificate
You need a certified copy of the death certificate, bearing an official seal, for every deceased person named in the registration.1TreasuryDirect. Agreement and Request for Disposition of a Decedent’s Treasury Securities Order extras when you request them; the Treasury does not return the copies you send.
Proof of Entitlement
What you submit depends on how the estate was settled:
- Closed estate: a certified copy of the final account or the court’s decree of distribution, under court seal.
- Small-estate or summary administration: whichever document your state’s statute provides to validate your authority to collect, such as a small estate affidavit or court order, submitted in accordance with that state’s requirements.4TreasuryDirect. Court-Appointed Representatives
Filling Out the Form
The form has four parts. Accuracy the first time is the single biggest thing you control.
Part A: Decedent’s Information
Enter the full name, Social Security Number, and state of legal residence of the last deceased owner named on the securities. If more than one person named on a bond has died, this refers to the one who died most recently.
Part B: Circumstances of Request
Check either the “administered and closed” box or the “state statute” box. This choice has to match the legal documents you attach. Checking closed estate while submitting a small estate affidavit will get the claim rejected.
Part C: Persons Entitled
List every person or entity entitled to receive the securities or payment, exactly as the court documents name them, along with each person’s basis of entitlement. Recipients named in a will are legatees. Recipients taking under state intestacy law when there is no will are heirs.5eCFR. 26 CFR 1.642(h)-3 – Meaning of Beneficiaries Succeeding to the Property of the Estate or Trust Names and designations here must match your court documents exactly.
Part D: Disposition of Securities
Tell the Treasury what to do with each bond. Use a separate Part D entry for each different registration or type of distribution. Your options depend on the series:1TreasuryDirect. Agreement and Request for Disposition of a Decedent’s Treasury Securities
- Older paper series (A through K, E, F, G, H, HH): payment by direct deposit. HH bonds can also be reissued in paper form with a single owner, co-owner, or beneficiary.
- Series EE and I bonds, paper or electronic: payment by direct deposit, or reissue or transfer into a TreasuryDirect account.
One catch: the Treasury no longer reissues Series EE bonds in paper form. Since February 2014, any reissue has to go into a TreasuryDirect account as an electronic bond, or the bond has to be cashed out.6eCFR. 31 CFR 353.48 – Restrictions on Reissue The person receiving a reissued bond needs an active TreasuryDirect account before the claim is processed.7TreasuryDirect. Changing Information About EE or I Savings Bonds (Reissuing) Set that up at TreasuryDirect.gov before you mail anything.
Getting Your Signature Certified
You have to sign the form in front of an authorized certifying officer. This is where people commonly slip up: a regular notary public generally cannot certify Form 5394. The Treasury only accepts notaries when a specific form’s instructions say so, and 5394’s do not.8TreasuryDirect. Signature Certification
The easiest option is a bank, credit union, or savings and loan association. Any officer at a U.S.-incorporated bank or trust company can certify, and designated employees expressly authorized by their institution can too, signing over the title “Designated Employee.”9eCFR. 31 CFR 315.55 – Individuals Authorized to Certify The certifying officer verifies your identity, then signs with their name, title, and the institution’s official seal or stamp.
Other authorized certifiers include judges and clerks of U.S. courts, commissioned military officers (for service members and their families), and U.S. diplomatic or consular representatives for Americans abroad. If you’re overseas and can’t reach a consulate or a foreign branch of a U.S. bank, a foreign notary can certify your signature, but a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer then has to attest that certification under seal.
Where to Mail the Claim
Send the completed Form 5394, the unsigned physical bonds (if you have them), and all certified supporting documents to:10TreasuryDirect. Contact Us
Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150
Use registered or insured mail. The Treasury itself recommends registered mail for bond certificates, and that advice applies just as much when you’re also enclosing certified death certificates and court documents you paid to obtain.11TreasuryDirect. Dealing With Old Paper Treasury Marketable Securities Keep photocopies of everything. Originals like death certificates don’t come back once the claim is processed.
Processing times depend on the type of security and how complicated the estate is. Simple claims with complete paperwork move faster; multiple securities, unusual registrations, or missing pieces slow things down. If you haven’t heard anything after a few months, calling Treasury Retail Securities Services is reasonable.
If the Physical Bonds Are Missing
Discovering a relative owned savings bonds but not being able to find the certificates is common. There are two separate problems: finding out what existed, and then claiming without the paper.
The Treasury’s Treasury Hunt search tool was taken offline on September 30, 2025, under the SECURE Act 2.0. Inquiries about unclaimed Treasury securities are now handled through state unclaimed property programs.12TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt Start at unclaimed.org, run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, and check the state where the original purchaser lived when the bonds were bought. Expect to need the purchaser’s full legal name, state of residence, a death certificate, and proof of your relationship.
To claim bonds you know existed but can’t produce, file FS Form 1048, the Treasury’s form for lost, stolen, or destroyed bonds.13TreasuryDirect. Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds Attach a certified death certificate when a registrant is deceased. A court-appointed legal representative also submits certified letters of appointment under court seal, dated within one year of submission. If no representative was appointed, contact the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for further instructions. When you don’t know serial numbers, use FS Form 3500 as a continuation sheet with whatever identifying details you have.
Tax Consequences to Expect
Inherited savings bonds raise two tax questions: income tax on accrued interest, and, rarely, estate tax.
Savings bond interest is income in respect of a decedent, so someone owes federal income tax on the interest that built up during the deceased owner’s lifetime.14Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1 Who pays depends on what you do with the bonds. If the estate cashes them, the estate reports the income; an estate with $600 or more of gross income in a tax year must file Form 1041. If the bonds are reissued to a new owner, the Treasury issues a Form 1099-INT in the deceased person’s name and SSN for interest earned up to the reissue date, and the new owner then owes tax only on interest that accrues afterward.15TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds
Paper bonds add a wrinkle. When a paper bond is eventually cashed, the 1099-INT covers the bond’s entire life of interest and is issued under the name and SSN of whoever cashes it. If a portion of that interest was already reported on the deceased person’s final return or the estate’s return, IRS Publication 550 explains how to make the adjustment on your own return.
Federal estate tax is unlikely to come into play. For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000.16Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax State estate or inheritance taxes have lower thresholds in some jurisdictions, so check your state’s rules if the overall estate is sizable.