Florida’s Chief Financial Officer is asking President Donald Trump to help get a billion dollars in savings bonds out of the U.S. Treasury and into the hands of Floridians.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis wrote to the president asking him to repeal a 2015 regulation that Patronis said is keeping the state from reuniting unclaimed savings bonds with their rightful owners or their heirs.
Patronis writes that more than $26 billion worth of bonds are now fully matured but haven’t been claimed, $1 billion dollars’ worth in Florida alone.
He said the funds are available to Floridians through the state’s unclaimed property program, but the 2015 federal rule required states to verify a physical bond certificate before making funds available to the owner.
Patronis said when it comes to unclaimed bonds, many certificates have been forgotten, lost, stolen or destroyed.In those cases, Patronis said he can’t get the money back to rightful owners until the regulation is lifted.
