Interest rates
Investment holdings
Investment transactions
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Trust funds and types of investments
The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance
Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance
Trust Fund comprise the Social Security trust funds. Both funds
are managed by the Department of the Treasury.
Since the beginning of the Social Security program, all
securities held by the trust funds have been issued by the Federal
Government. There are two general types of such securities:
- Special issues—available only to the trust funds
- Public issues—marketable Treasury bonds available to the public.
The trust funds now hold only special issues, but they have held public
issues in the past.
Special issue types and properties
There are two types of special issues:
short-term certificates of indebtedness and long-term bonds.
- The certificates of indebtedness are issued on a daily basis for the
investment of receipts not required to meet current expenditures, and they
mature on the next June 30 following the date of issue.
- Special-issue bonds are normally acquired only when special
issues of either type mature on June 30. The bonds have maturities
ranging from one to fifteen years.
The above properties of special issue securities are summarized in the
following table.
Type of special issue |
Investment frequency |
Maturity |
Certificates of indebtedness |
Daily |
Next June 30 |
Bonds |
June 30 |
1 to 15 years |
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