Updating a security’s registration on TreasuryDirect — say, to add a secondary owner or a beneficiary — is a pretty painless process, but there are a handful of rules to check before you dive in.
Both electronic savings bonds and Treasury marketable securities can be registered three ways: under your name alone, under your name with a secondary owner, or under your name with a named beneficiary. Regardless of which you pick, everyone listed on the registration needs a taxpayer identification number on file with TreasuryDirect.
A few situations where registration edits won’t work:
1. Log in and go to ManageDirect. From your primary TreasuryDirect account, click the ManageDirect tab along the top.
2. Find the registration editor. Look for the Manage My Securities section and select Edit a registration.
3. Choose your security type. The Edit Security Registration page will ask what type of security you’re updating. Make your selection and hit Submit.
4. Pick the securities you want to update. You’ll see a list of eligible securities. Check off whichever ones you want to change — the system lets you apply one registration change to up to 50 securities in a single go — then click Select.
5. Set up the new registration. On the Detail page, open the drop-down menu and choose a registration that already includes the secondary owner or beneficiary you want. If one doesn’t exist yet, click Add New Registration, fill it out, and save it. The system will bring you back to the Detail page, where the new registration will now show up in the drop-down.
6. Submit. With the right registration selected, click Submit. The change will apply to every security you checked off in step 4.