Savings bonds enter a trust in 2 ways: FS Form 1851 (Rev. April 2026) reissues paper EE and I bonds to the trustee, and FS Form 5511 (Rev. March 2026) moves electronic bonds into the trust's account. Trust requests take ten months or longer (TreasuryDirect, as of November 11, 2026).
A trustee cashes trust bonds with FS Form 1522 and distributes them with FS Form 1455. This page is part of our guide to savings bonds after death. ClaimMyBonds is a private independent guide, not the government, and the forms are free from TreasuryDirect.
Can Savings Bonds Be Transferred to a Trust?
Yes, paper EE and I bonds that still earn interest can be reissued to a personal trust, and the transaction is recorded on a Treasury form. The table lists 6 trust transactions, the form each one uses and who signs.
| Transaction (bonds) | Form | Who signs | Certification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move paper bonds into a personal trust (EE and I, still earning) | FS Form 1851 (Rev. April 2026) | Owner or both co-owners, and the acting trustee | Notary or certifying officer |
| Move electronic bonds into a trust (electronic EE and I) | FS Form 5511 (Rev. March 2026) | Account owner | Certifying officer only |
| Cash trust-owned paper bonds (every paper series) | FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026) | Trustee or trustees | Only above $1,000 total current redemption value |
| Record a successor trustee (paper EE and I, still earning) | FS Form 4000 (Rev. April 2026) | Successor trustee | Notary or certifying officer |
| Distribute bonds when the trust ends (every series) | FS Form 1455 (Rev. April 2026), then a distributee form | Every fiduciary, unless fewer are allowed | Certifying officer only |
| Move inherited bonds into a trust (after the estate route) | FS Form 5336 cannot do it; the person entitled files FS 1851 | Person entitled | As FS 1851 |
Source: FS Forms 1851, 5511, 1522, 4000, 1455 and 5336 (Rev. March to April 2026); FS Publication 0065 (Rev. January 2025); TreasuryDirect, as of November 11, 2026. A manager change on a trust's TreasuryDirect account uses FS Form 5446.
A bond becomes trust property on Treasury's records only through one of these forms. Whether a trust is the right home for your bonds is a question for the trust's attorney, since the forms only record the decision with Treasury.
Which Trusts Can Hold Savings Bonds
FS Form 1851 accepts 3 kinds of personal trust. The first is created by the owner or a co-owner, and the second by another person when the owner or a co-owner is a beneficiary. The third, for Series EE only, has a beneficiary related to the owner by blood, adoption or marriage.
FS Publication 0049 (Rev. August 2015) covers trusts set up by declaration (U/D/T) or agreement (U/A), revocable or irrevocable, and testamentary trusts created by a will.
Whether a testamentary trust qualifies under FS Form 1851 is not established. An EE owner may name a personal-trust trustee as new owner (31 CFR 353.47(a)); Series I is narrower (31 CFR 360.47(a)).
Which Savings Bonds Can Still Go Into a Trust in November 2026
As of November 2026, only paper EE bonds issued January 1997 or later and paper I bonds can still go into a trust. Final maturity is the date a bond stops earning interest.
A bond at final maturity, or within one full calendar month of it, can only be cashed (31 CFR 353.45(b)). The list shows the 3 groups.
- Series EE savings bonds: paper issues January 1997 to December 2011 qualify; January 1997 issues only if Treasury receives the request at least one full calendar month before January 1, 2027; December 1996 issues reach final maturity on December 1, 2026 and are already inside the cut-off; January 1980 to November 1996 issues are cash only
- Series I savings bonds: every paper I bond still earns; the first, issued September 1998, reaches final maturity in September 2028
- Series E, Series HH and Savings Notes: all at final maturity (when savings bonds mature), cash only
How to Transfer Paper Savings Bonds to a Living Trust
Transferring paper savings bonds to a living trust means asking Treasury to reissue them in the trustee's name with FS Form 1851. The owner (both co-owners on a co-owner bond) and the acting trustee, the trustee who handles the trust's business, sign it before a notary or certifying officer. The 5 steps are listed below.
- Check that each bond still earns interest and that the trust is a personal trust FS Form 1851 accepts.
- Have the trustee open a TreasuryDirect entity account in the trust's name; the account manager signs the agreement to electronic reissue.
- Complete FS Form 1851 and sign it with the acting trustee before a notary or certifying officer.
- Mail the form with the unsigned paper bonds to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150.
- Allow ten months or longer (TreasuryDirect, as of November 11, 2026); Treasury does not return legal evidence.
Treasury reissues the bonds only as electronic bonds, because paper reissue ended after February 14, 2014 (31 CFR 353.48(a), 360.48(a); 79 FR 8859, 8860). The bonds are not cashed, and Treasury charges no fee for the reissue. The item-by-item instructions are in our guide to FS Form 1851.
Moving Electronic Savings Bonds Into a Trust's TreasuryDirect Account
Electronic savings bonds move into a trust by transfer, not reissue: the trust needs its own TreasuryDirect entity account, and the owner sends FS Form 5511 (Rev. March 2026), signed before a certifying officer (no notary). A transfer to a trust also needs the Tax Liability Notice on page 2 of the form.
An entity account is a TreasuryDirect account for electronic savings bonds in the name of a trust or another entity, allowed since April 24, 2009 (74 FR 19416, published April 29, 2009). It has one manager who can act alone and no secondary owner or beneficiary.
The manager needs a Social Security number, a US address and a US bank account. Login runs through ID.me only since October 28, 2026, which verifies the manager, not the trust. EE and I bonds are not split, and ClaimMyBonds does not open or access TreasuryDirect accounts.
Taxes When Savings Bonds Move Into a Trust
IRS Publication 550 (2025) says an owner who transfers E, EE or I bonds to a trust and gives up ownership reports the interest earned up to the transfer date. The exception is an owner treated as the owner of the trust, called a grantor trust.
The forms carry the same warning. FS Form 1851 includes a tax-liability statement, and FS Form 5511 requires the Tax Liability Notice. FS Form 4000 states: "THE OBLIGATION TO REPORT THE INTEREST CANNOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH A REISSUE TRANSACTION."
Savings bond interest is federally taxable at redemption or final maturity, whichever comes first, unless the owner reports the interest each year (IRC 454).
It is exempt from state and local income tax (31 U.S.C. 3124(a)) but not from estate or inheritance taxes. The guide that asks are savings bonds taxable explains it; the trust's tax professional decides.
Trust-Owned Savings Bonds: Who Signs and How a Trustee Cashes Them
A trustee cashes trust-owned paper savings bonds by mail with FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026), sending the bonds unsigned, and Treasury pays by direct deposit under the trust's EIN. An EIN is the employer identification number the IRS issues to the trust.
Signature certification is needed only above $1,000 total current redemption value, the amount Treasury would pay today. The papers a trustee sends with the request are set out on TreasuryDirect's trusts page. The rules on savings bond signature certification explain who may certify. The table shows who signs in each situation.
| Situation | Who signs | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| EE or HH bond before final maturity | Every trustee (note 1) | 31 CFR 353.75(a)(1) |
| EE or HH bond at or after final maturity | Any one or more trustees | 31 CFR 353.75(b) |
| Co-trustees registered "AND" | Both, by default | FS Publication 0049 |
| Co-trustees registered "OR" | Either, where the instrument lets each act alone | FS Publication 0049 |
| Reissue to a trust (FS 1851) | Owner and acting trustee | FS Form 1851 |
| Attorney-in-fact | May not reissue paper bonds | FS Form 5188 |
Note 1: Fewer signatures are allowed where a statute, court decree or the trust instrument permits. Source: eCFR part 353 (as of November 9, 2026); FS Publication 0049 (Rev. August 2015); FS Forms 1851 and 5188 (Rev. April 2026).
Every Series E, HH and Savings Note and every EE bond from January 1980 to November 1996 is at final maturity.
For EE and HH bonds one fiduciary (a person managing property for others) may sign (31 CFR 353.75(b)). For Series E and Savings Notes, check the trust instrument and the trusts page; this rule covers EE and HH.
Series HH and Other Matured Bonds Held in a Trust
Series HH bonds in a trust can only be cashed: every one reached final maturity by August 1, 2024, is worth face value, and only Treasury pays it, by direct deposit, on FS Form 1522. HH bonds cannot be reissued.
The rules for Series HH savings bonds allow no bank payment and no partial cashing. Treasury sends a Form 1099-INT by January 31 of the following year when interest or deferred interest is paid. Matured Series E bonds and Savings Notes held by a trust are also cashed by mail with FS Form 1522.
Changing the Trustee on Trust-Owned Savings Bonds
A successor trustee is recorded on trust-owned paper EE and I bonds with FS Form 4000 (Rev. April 2026), signed before a notary or certifying officer. A successor trustee is the person who takes over when the trustee resigns or dies.
Treasury asks for a resignation letter, a death certificate or a court order, plus a Certification of Trust or the full trust agreement. The bonds come back as electronic bonds. A bond within one full calendar month of final maturity can only be cashed (31 CFR 353.45(b)).
A new manager of the trust's TreasuryDirect account is named with FS Form 5446 (Rev. April 2026), signed before a certifying officer only. The form is listed with every other one among our savings bond forms, and matured bonds are cashed, not reissued.
When the Trust Ends: Distributing Savings Bonds to Beneficiaries
When a trust ends, the trustee files FS Form 1455 (Rev. April 2026) to distribute the bonds to the persons entitled, signed before a certifying officer (no notary). Each bond goes whole to one person, because bonds cannot be split.
Every fiduciary signs unless fewer are allowed. Termination of a trust is 1 of 5 reasons the form lists, and 31 CFR 353.76 lets a bond be paid or reissued to the person entitled when the fiduciary estate ends. A corporate fiduciary signs through an authorized officer.
Each person entitled then files a distributee form: FS Form 1522 to cash, 4000 to reissue, 1851 for paper bonds going into a trust, 5511 to transfer electronic bonds, or 5512 to redeem them. A bank trustee moving bonds into its common trust fund sends FS Form 1455 together with FS Form 1851.
Inherited Savings Bonds That Should End Up in a Trust
An heir who wants inherited savings bonds in a trust first becomes the person entitled, then files FS Form 1851, because the estate forms cannot pay or distribute bonds to a trust.
FS Form 5336 (Rev. April 2026) cannot distribute or pay to a trust, and FS Publication 0065 (Rev. January 2025) states: "Bonds can't be distributed to a trust."
A trust named in a will does not take a co-owned or POD bond, because the surviving co-owner or POD beneficiary becomes the owner at the death (31 CFR 353.70(b)(1), (c)(1); Free v.
Bland, 369 U.S. 663 (1962); Yiatchos v. Yiatchos, 376 U.S. 306 (1964)). A bond in the decedent's name alone goes to the estate (31 CFR 353.70(a)).
Can you cash a deceased parent's savings bonds? Start with the registration, because a co-owner, a POD beneficiary and an estate each follow a different route. Reissue to the person entitled comes first, and the estate's attorney reads the will. Our guide to reissuing inherited savings bonds gives the steps.
Trusts Compared With Other Ways Savings Bonds Pass After Death
At a death a bond passes to a surviving co-owner, a POD beneficiary or the estate (31 CFR 353.70); a bond already reissued to a trust stays trust property.
Inherited EE bond interest is reported on the decedent's final return by election or as income in respect of a decedent (IRS Publication 550 (2025)); see taxes on inherited savings bonds.
POD Beneficiaries and Co-Owners Instead of a Trust
A POD beneficiary or a surviving co-owner becomes sole owner at the death without probate, and no trust is needed (31 CFR 353.70). The guide to POD savings bonds covers the beneficiary side. The savings bond co-owner rules explain why the survivor owns the bond.
Savings Bonds in Probate When No Trust Holds Them
Bonds in the decedent's name alone go through the estate. A court administers it above $100,000 at the date of death (31 CFR 353.71(d)).
At $100,000 or less, with no administration or state small-estate procedure, FS Form 5336 applies (31 CFR 353.71(e)); state small-estate and closed estates use FS Form 5394. Executors find steps in savings bonds in probate.
Savings Bonds in Divorce and Trust Reissues
A living EE owner may name a new owner in 3 cases: a relative, a divorce or annulment party, or a personal-trust trustee (31 CFR 353.47(a)).
For Series I, only divorce, annulment or a personal trust qualify (31 CFR 360.47(a)). A decree is recognized under 31 CFR 353.22(a). Our page on savings bonds in divorce covers the court order.
Savings Bonds and Trusts FAQ
Can a Power of Attorney Move Savings Bonds Into a Trust?
No for paper bonds: an attorney-in-fact may not reissue paper savings bonds (FS Form 5188, Rev. April 2026), so the owner signs FS Form 1851. See cashing savings bonds for someone else for what a power of attorney can do, and FS Form 5188 for the form.
Does a Trust Need Its Own TreasuryDirect Account?
Yes for electronic bonds: paper EE and I bonds reissued to a trust, and electronic bonds transferred to it, are held in a TreasuryDirect entity account in the trust's name. That account has one manager who can act alone, and no secondary owner or beneficiary.
How Long Does Treasury Take With a Trust Request?
Ten months or longer: TreasuryDirect lists trusts and other TreasuryDirect requests at ten months or longer, against three months or longer for cashing paper bonds in your own name. Both figures are as of November 11, 2026, from Treasury's contact page.
Can I Bonds Be Put in a Trust?
Yes: paper I bonds go in with FS Form 1851 if the trust was created by the owner or a co-owner or names one of them as beneficiary. Electronic I bonds move with FS Form 5511 into the trust's account. Every paper I bond still earns, and the first final maturity is September 2028 (see Series I savings bonds).
Rules checked November 11, 2026, against the Treasury sources named above; see our methodology.