When Michael Jones purchased Series EE federal savings bonds, he designated his wife, Jeanine, as the pay-on-death beneficiary. The couple later divorced. Under the divorce settlement agreement, Michael agreed to pay Jeanine $200,000 over a period of years. The settlement agreement did not mention the savings bonds, nor did Michael take any action to have the pay-on-death beneficiary changed.

Michael died before completing all the payments required by the divorce agreement. Jeanine redeemed the savings bonds, then filed a creditor’s claim against his estate for the $100,000 remaining to be paid to her. The estate argued that the redeemed savings bonds should be counted toward satisfying the debt, and the trial court agreed, dismissing Jeanine’s claim.

Jeanine appealed, and the appellate court reversed. Under the federal regulations governing savings bonds, Jeanine became the sole owner of the bonds at the moment of Michael’s death. Because it became her property, it does not satisfy the debt the estate owes to her. The New Jersey Supreme Court now affirms that outcome. Jeanine’s property interest in the bonds was not revoked by the divorce agreement, because that agreement did not mention the bonds. “The trial court’s holding, which impaired Jeanine’s right of survivorship as beneficiary of the bonds based on nothing more than its assumption that Michael likely intended to do so, is exactly the type of judicial determination the federal regulations do not allow,” the Court held [Matter of Estate of Jones, 328 A.3d 923 (N.J. 2025)].