Make Grandkids Savings Bond Beneficiaries

If you don’t want to cash in your Series EE U.S. Savings Bonds, making your grandchildren the beneficiaries is the easiest way to assure they receive them should you pass away.

Upon your death, your grandchildren will get the bonds automatically, according to “Legal Aspects of United States Savings Bonds,” a guide published by the government.

In this way, the bonds will bypass the probate court process, which can be costly and timeconsuming.

“When a bond is registered in the name of one individual with a second person as beneficiary, the death of the owner results in the surviving beneficiary becoming the sole and absolute owner of the bond,” the guide says.

Here’s how to go about it: You must tell the government to reissue your bond so that a beneficiary’s name will be printed on the bond’s face, after the initials “POD” or the words “payable on death.”

The government allows only one beneficiary per bond. If you have more than one grandchild, list one as beneficiary for some bonds, another as beneficiary for other bonds, and so on.

Ask your bank for the proper forms for reissue. You must submit the completed forms, along with your bonds, for processing. Your bank may handle this step for you, or tell you where to write.

You should receive the reissued bonds by mail within several weeks. There is no charge for the service.

For more information, write: Bureau of the Public Debt, Savings Bond Operations Office, Parkersburg, W.Va. 26106-1328.

(By the way: Bonds can’t be registered in the names of more than two people. So, if there are two co-owners, such as a husband and wife, a beneficiary can’t be added.)

Emerging markets finally do

Stocks in emerging markets have started the year with a bang, and Mehran Nakhjavani, editor of Emerging Markets Analyst (514-499-9550), a leading publication on the subject, says, “This rally is for real.”

A bargain hunter, he’s particularly high on India, Korea and Thailand, which “offer valuations which are extremely attractive as well as being swamped by excessively negative “hype’ on the part of investors.” He adds, “Risks remain low and upside potential high in Chile.”

The best way to invest in individual markets is through closed-end funds, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Among them: India Growth, Korea Fund, Thai Fund and Chile Fund.

Funds own only 12 percent of stocks

Dumb question: Why is it of any significance how much money flows in and out of mutual funds when we cannot measure how much the individual is also buying or selling in individual stocks at the same time?

Mutual funds held only about 12 percent of U.S. stocks last year. That’s up from about 6 percent in 1990, and the mutual fund share of total U.S. equity holdings is growing. But the proportion was less than half that held by private and public pension funds, according to a study by the Conference Board.