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Home >> Special Situations >> Minors
Accessing Funds from UTMA Account
My stepson recently turned eighteen. As a birthday gift, his father gave him the account number to an UTMA account that he said has about $6,500 in it. The problem is that he will not tell my stepson the name of the institution that is holding the account. The father is holding this information back in order to get the boy to achieve certain goals that are unreasonable for an eighteen year old. The goals keep changing, making it just out of reach for the boy.
Is there any way (short of filing a lawsuit) that my stepson can use the account number to find the institution so that he can access his funds? Is there possibly a list of all institutions that provide UTMA accounts? What might be a reasonable approach?
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 There is no list of institutions with UTMA accounts, nor is there a way to track the account number back to the bank. In fact, even if your stepson could identify the bank holding the funds, the bank would not legally be able to give him access. The bank can deal only with the custodian, his father. It is the custodian's legal responsibility to surrender the funds in the account to the minor when the minor reaches the appropriate age under the state's UTMA law.
That age can vary from state to state, and may depend on the source of the funds placed in the account. The range of qualifying ages is generally from 18 to 21.
If your stepson does some legal research and determines that he has reached the age for transfer of his funds, he can ask his father to complete the transfer. If his father refuses, perhaps the boy's mother could try to intercede on her son's behalf, or your stepson can consider taking the matter to court, although such a step is clearly not one that you would want to take lightly.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 12/01/10
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