I have received a check from the US department of treasury and I'd like to endorse it over to my daughter. On the back of the check where I endorse it above it has pretyped message from department. How and where do I need to endorse this check over to her so that she can deposit it? Thank you.
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The standard method for a third party endorsement is to write three lines in the endorsement area as follows:
Pay to the order of:
Jane Doe
Steve Eisenberg
Where Jane is the name of the person you want to sign the check over to, and Steve is your signature, matching the way your name is spelled on the front of the check as usual.
The rules governing endorsement of treasury checks do not explicitly mention third party endorsements. That said, there is an important caveat to keep in mind - as with any check, the bank that Jane tries to deposit the check at is essentially given the latitude to decide whether or not they will accept the check, and whether or not there are any special requirements or procedures for accepting the check. For instance, some institutions will require Steve and Jane to both be present when the check is handed over, and to make the third party endorsement live, in the presence of bank staff. They may also want to see Steve's ID as part of the process, especially if he does not have any account or relationship with this particular bank (and hence they don't have a sample of his signature to compare the endorsement to). Other institutions will just happily take the check without batting an eyelid, and others still may simply tell you they won't accept it if it's been endorsed as you intend to. So, to get the literal answer to your question, you'll need to ask at the institution Jane intends to cash or deposit it at.
And on that note, many institutions pay extra attention to Treasury checks, and may be nervous about taking a third party endorsed Treasury check or any other Treasury check that seems suspicious. This is thanks in part to the above-mentioned rules governing Treasury checks - while the Fed has specific and fairly restrictive requirements for issuing banks being allowed to return (reject) checks, the rules that apply to Treasury-issued checks are much more lenient in terms of allowing the Treasury to decide they're not going to accept a check. This means the bank you try to cash or deposit the check at takes on more risk for a Treasury check compared to a check issued by any other bank, so they may be more careful with Treasury checks compared to others.
