Mississippi Unclaimed Savings Bonds: How to Search and Claim

Mississippi unclaimed savings bonds come back from the Mississippi State Treasury only when the paper bond itself reached its unclaimed property program. Every other unclaimed savings bond is claimed from Treasury with FS Form 1048, and both routes are free.

Mississippi's savings bond escheat law, Miss. Code 89-12-59, and Fitch v. United States (Fed. Cl. No. 16-231C, dismissed November 30, 2020) set the limits. We checked every fact below on November 11, 2026.

ClaimMyBonds is a private, independent guide, not the Mississippi State Treasury, Treasury, TreasuryDirect or Treasury Hunt. We are not affiliated with them and cannot search their records for you. Searching and claiming with the Mississippi program costs nothing. The hub on savings bonds and state unclaimed property offices shows how other states compare.

Does the Mississippi State Treasury Hold Unclaimed Savings Bonds?

Yes, but only paper bonds that physically reached it. The Mississippi State Treasury runs the state's unclaimed property program under Miss. Code 89-12-1 to 89-12-59, so it can hold and return a paper savings bond it received.

Bonds that exist only on Treasury's records stay with Treasury. The table below sums up Mississippi's position as of November 11, 2026.

Source: Mississippi State Treasury and Mississippi Legislature bill records, checked November 11, 2026; 80 FR 80259; court records.

No Mississippi search for savings bonds has been verified. Missouri runs the only verified live state name search for held paper bonds. No national name search exists either, as the guide to unclaimed savings bonds explains.

Paper Bonds Mississippi Holds Versus Bonds on Treasury's Records

A paper savings bond Mississippi holds is one the State Treasury physically received, for example inside the contents of a safe deposit box turned over to the state. The bond stays registered to its owner, and the state holds it for the owner or the heirs.

Electronic bonds never reach the program. Neither do paper bonds that were lost or never handed over. Treasury keeps the records for all of them.

How to Search and Claim Mississippi Unclaimed Savings Bonds

Search the Mississippi State Treasury's unclaimed property site, then file the Treasury's claim if a listing matches. Searching and claiming with a state program costs nothing. The 4 steps are listed below in order.

1. Open the unclaimed property page yourself at treasury.ms.gov/for-citizens/unclaimed-property/, never through a link in a letter, text or ad.
2. Search the owner's name exactly as printed on the bond, plus former and married names; how to read a paper savings bond shows where the name sits.
3. Repeat the search for each co-owner or POD beneficiary named on the bond and for a deceased owner.
4. File the State Treasury's claim for each listing that could be a bond, and ask the State Treasury which proof it needs.

Mississippi State Treasury, Unclaimed Property
Website: treasury.ms.gov/for-citizens/unclaimed-property/
Law: Miss. Code 89-12-1 to 89-12-59 (unclaimed property); 89-12-59 (savings bonds)
Source: Mississippi State Treasury and Mississippi Legislature bill records, checked November 11, 2026. ClaimMyBonds is not affiliated with the Mississippi State Treasury.

Cashing a Savings Bond Mississippi Returns to You

Cash a paper bond the State Treasury returns at a bank that offers the service, or by mail to Treasury with FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026).

Banks may cash paper bonds but are not required to (FS Publication 0022, Rev. October 2022). The full steps are in our guide on how to cash savings bonds.

FS Form 1522 needs a notary or certifying officer, a person authorized to verify your signature, only when the total current redemption value is more than $1,000. The value depends on the series and issue date, not on Mississippi; our calculator, built on Treasury's published value files, prices it.

If Mississippi Does Not Hold Your Savings Bond: Claim From Treasury With FS Form 1048

File FS Form 1048 (Rev. March 2026) with Treasury when Mississippi does not hold the bond: Treasury searches its own records for lost, stolen or destroyed paper bonds and charges no fee. The form is free from TreasuryDirect, and you file it by mail.

Mail the FS Form 1048 claim for lost savings bonds to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150. A claim filed 6 years or more after final maturity, the date a bond stops earning interest, needs the bond's serial number (31 CFR 315.29(c), 353.29(c)).

Treasury's records hold 103,064,737 matured unredeemed bonds, all series, as of September 30, 2026 (Fiscal Data), so a bond missing from Mississippi's list may still be on Treasury's records. TreasuryDirect states: "As of September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt® tool is no longer available."

Miss. Code 89-12-59: Mississippi's Savings Bond Escheat Law

Miss. Code 89-12-59 makes US savings bonds that are unclaimed property "escheat to the State of Mississippi three (3) years after becoming unclaimed property." Escheat means the state takes ownership, and the statute assigns it to the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County.

Treasury listed Mississippi among the 7 states that enacted such statutes in 2014 (80 FR 80259, December 24, 2015), with Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina and South Dakota. We did not find the enacting session law. The table below gives the steps as of November 11, 2026.

Mississippi's savings bond escheat law, Miss. Code 89-12-59 (enacted 2014 per 80 FR 80259), with the federal limit, as of November 11, 2026.

The wording quoted here is the text of 89-12-59 as printed in House Bill 1086 of the 2016 regular session, a bill that would have amended the section. It passed the House on March 1, 2016 and died in a Senate committee on March 22, 2016, so it did not change 89-12-59.

Hinds County Escheat Actions and What the Record Does Not Show

We found no record of a Hinds County judgment that made any savings bond the property of Mississippi, and no record of Treasury paying Mississippi for one, as of November 11, 2026. That is an absence of records, not a finding about any outcome.

An escheat judgment would matter only for a paper bond Mississippi holds. A bond owner's claim to Treasury does not depend on Mississippi, and bonds never expire. Ask a Mississippi attorney about your own position if you receive a court notice.

Mississippi's Savings Bond Lawsuits, From Estes to Fitch v. United States

Mississippi took part in 4 federal savings bond proceedings between 2015 and 2020, as commenter, plaintiff, amicus and plaintiff again, and each ended against the states. The table below lists each one as of November 11, 2026, with its docket and result.

Sources: Federal Register; govinfo.gov; Federal Circuit opinion. Estes: appeal dismissed November 21, 2017.

Lynn Fitch, as Mississippi State Treasurer, was a plaintiff with Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota in Estes. The court held that the 2015 amendments clarified rather than changed Treasury practice.

Mississippi then filed as amicus for the states in LaTurner. Fitch v. United States was dismissed with prejudice on November 30, 2020, in one Opinion and Order by Judge Elaine D. Kaplan that covered 10 state suits.

What Federal Courts and Treasury Rules Leave Mississippi

Federal law leaves Mississippi one savings bond route: Treasury may, at its discretion, pay a state for a paper bond at final maturity that the state possesses and owns by court judgment. The rules are 31 CFR 315.88 and 353.88 (80 FR 80258, December 24, 2015).

LaTurner v. United States, 933 F.3d 1354 (Fed. Cir. August 13, 2019; certiorari denied October 5, 2020), holds that federal law preempts state escheat laws for bonds a state does not hold. A state without the bond or its serial number cannot redeem it. The 2020 order left the possession route untouched.

Owners therefore keep their federal right to claim from Treasury, and 89-12-59 works only for bonds Mississippi physically holds. The Unclaimed Savings Bond Act (H.R. 4085 and S. 2854, 117th Congress) was not enacted.

In a release of July 17, 2026, the Mississippi State Treasurer says he joined "dozens of state financial officers" in urging the President to issue an executive order on matured unredeemed savings bonds. That release is the Treasurer's statement, not a Treasury figure.

Mississippi Savings Bonds After the Owner Dies: Federal Rules Decide Who Owns Them

Federal savings bond rules, not Mississippi law, decide who owns a bond after the owner dies: a surviving co-owner or POD beneficiary becomes the sole owner, and the bond is not part of the estate (31 CFR 353.70(b)(1), (c)(1)). Our summary of savings bond co-owner rules shows that a survivor owns the bond outright.

A POD (payable on death) beneficiary is the person named to receive the bond at the owner's death. A will or state court order cannot defeat that result (31 CFR 353.20(a); Free v.

Bland, 369 U.S. 663 (1962)). Heirs search the deceased owner's name with the State Treasury and use FS Form 1048 for the rest.

A court must administer the estate if the decedent's savings bonds total more than $100,000 in redemption value at the date of death (31 CFR 353.71).

FS Form 5336 serves estates that are not administered, and FS Form 5394 serves closed estates and state small-estate procedures. See savings bonds in probate for the $100,000 estate rule. Ask the estate's attorney.

Other States in Mississippi's Savings Bond Cases

Mississippi shared Estes with 4 states and the 2020 dismissal with 9, and 5 related state pages cover states from those cases.

• Louisiana unclaimed savings bonds: 2014 statute, Estes co-plaintiff, No. 15-1365C
• Kentucky unclaimed savings bonds: 2014 statute, Estes co-plaintiff, No. 16-221C
• South Dakota unclaimed savings bonds: 2014 statute, Estes co-plaintiff, No. 15-1364C
• Kansas unclaimed savings bonds: first statute, 2000, Estes lead plaintiff, LaTurner
• Iowa unclaimed savings bonds: 2014 statute, No. 19-678C

More Guides for Mississippi Bond Owners and Heirs

5 related guides cover situations the Mississippi search does not.

• Savings bonds of a deceased parent or relative
• Found old savings bonds
• POD savings bonds
• Savings bond recovery services
• Help after a state contacts you about savings bonds

Mississippi Unclaimed Savings Bonds FAQ

How long before Mississippi can escheat a savings bond?

The text of Miss. Code 89-12-59 makes a savings bond escheat to Mississippi 3 years after it becomes unclaimed property, through the Hinds County circuit court. Federal law limits that to bonds the state holds.

Can Mississippi get savings bond records from Treasury?

No state, Mississippi included, is publicly known to have signed the information-sharing agreement that 31 CFR 323.11(b) requires before Treasury shares owner names and addresses (as of November 11, 2026).

A state may use those records only to locate owners, never to escheat them, and not to release them to the public or third parties without Treasury's advance written approval (31 CFR 323.11(c); 89 FR 102735, December 18, 2024). No Social Security numbers or serial numbers are shared. The limits are set out in the guide on what states can receive from Treasury.

Is there a deadline to claim a savings bond in Mississippi?

Savings bonds never expire, and Treasury sets no deadline to redeem them (EO 13968, 85 FR 83745); they stop earning interest at final maturity. We did not establish a Mississippi claim deadline. See when savings bonds mature.

Is a letter offering to recover my Mississippi savings bonds for a fee a scam?

Treat any letter that offers to recover Mississippi savings bonds for a fee with care: claiming from the Mississippi State Treasury and from Treasury costs nothing, and Treasury pays only the owner or the person entitled (31 CFR 353.39(b)). Government impersonation is barred by 16 CFR Part 461. More on savings bond scams is in our guide.

Where can I cash a savings bond in Mississippi?

Cash a paper savings bond at a Mississippi bank that offers the service, or by mail to Treasury with FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026). Banks may cash bonds but are not required to, and Series HH bonds go to Treasury only. See the banks that cash savings bonds.

Can I still use Treasury Hunt to find Mississippi savings bonds?

No: Treasury Hunt has not been available since September 30, 2025, and no online tool replaced it. Use the Mississippi search for held bonds and FS Form 1048 for everything else; Treasury Hunt is closed.

Rules and Mississippi agency pages checked November 11, 2026; see how we check every statute and docket.