Can existing IBonds be gifted?
tsev...@mn.rr.com
children?
If it is possible, does the gift impact the maximum amount of IBonds an
individual (i.e. one of my mother's children) may purchase?
Thanks for your input,
Terry
BreadW...@fractious.net
> As part of estate planning, can my mother gift her I Bonds to her
> children?
An I bond bearing the name of one individual as owner
may be reissued to add the name of another individual
as a co-owner or a beneficiary.
An I bond may be reissued to eliminate the name of a
beneficiary or to substitute the name of another
beneficiary in place of an existing beneficiary (in
the case of an I bond which already has both an
owner and a beneficiary).
An I bond may be reissued if all registrants are deceased.
A sole owner may *not* "gift" an I bond. It is not
transferrable that way. A co-owned bond (as opposed
to an owner/beneficiary one) is a little more complicated
but the complications effectively eliminate any utility
to trying to use a co-ownership structure to sneak in
an ability to gift the bond.
See <http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/sbireiss.htm>
A bond may be bought as a gift for someone else *at purchase time*.
> If it is possible, does the gift impact the maximum amount of IBonds an
> individual (i.e. one of my mother's children) may purchase?
If you are buying a bond as a gift for someone else at
the time of purchase, it won't count towards your annual
limit on buying I bonds.
See <http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/sbigift.htm>
Note that the interest rates on I Bonds will be getting
reset in about three weeks at the beginning of May.
The CPI-U portion of all existing I Bonds yields will
be updated and the "real" or "fixed" portion of newly
issued I Bonds will likely be different from what it is
now. You may want to factor this into your timing.
While we're at it, it's worth noting that the means
of calculating interest on EE bonds will be changing
this May, too. EE Bonds issued until then will
continue to get a floating rate based on the 5-yr
treasury yield. EE Bonds issued after that will have
fixed rates for the life of the bond. This was
announced only a few days ago:
See <http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/com/comeefixedrate.htm>
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Rich Carreiro
> While we're at it, it's worth noting that the means
> of calculating interest on EE bonds will be changing
> this May, too. EE Bonds issued until then will
> continue to get a floating rate based on the 5-yr
> treasury yield. EE Bonds issued after that will have
> fixed rates for the life of the bond.
That's very interesting. I think that would make I-bonds more
attractive relative to EE-bonds, since EE-bonds will no longer be able
to (indirectly) adjust to inflation as they could when they had a
floating rate.
And the "doubling" guarantee was moved from after 17 years to after 20
years, lowering the guaranteed minimum return to 3.53% (and you have
to hold for the first 20 years, since the guarantee is implemented as
a one-time adjustment in the 20th year, if needed).
--
Rich Carreiro rlc...@animato.arlington.ma.us
BreadW...@fractious.net
> BreadW...@fractious.net writes:
> > treasury yield. EE Bonds issued after that will have
> > fixed rates for the life of the bond.
>
> That's very interesting. I think that would make I-bonds more
> attractive relative to EE-bonds, since EE-bonds will no longer be
> able to (indirectly) adjust to inflation as they could when they had
> a floating rate.
It's a good-news/bad-news thing. If you buy EE bonds when
rates are relatively high, and then we go into a low-inflation,
lower-rate period, you can come out way ahead.
And if you buy them and then rates and inflation soar, you
can still cash them in, pay your taxes (and, depending on
how long you've held them, a three month interst penalty)
and buy new, higher-rate ones.
anoop
> An I bond may be reissued if all registrants are deceased.
Who can request the reissue and in who's name will the bond
be reissued?
Anoop
BreadW...@fractious.net
>From my earlier post:
See <http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/sbireiss.htm>
and follow the link on the bottom of the page to
<http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/sbidies.htm>
In particular:
A court-appointed representative of a deceased person's estate may
decide to have the estate's bonds reissued (with the same original
issue dates) to change the registration so that someone entitled to
receive a portion of the estate's property may be named on the
bonds as sole owner. If the person entitled wants to have another
living person as co-owner or beneficiary, the person entitled
should also complete and sign a reissue request.
The Bureau of the Public Debt really does a pretty good
job about putting lots and lots of useful information
online.