Children's savings bonds

[stressedNC]

My minor children have savings bonds I was told they are exempt by a paralegal, is this true?

We do not have the bonds FIL keeps them with his estate papers, his intentions are that they are for their educations and that is when he plans to give them to them. The current value is probably around 35k(60k in bonds).

We have never bought any, we actually wouldn't even have to know they exsist since anyone can buy them for anyone at any time. I never even thought about them when we filled everything out and now I am nervous that they will think we tried to hide them. None of the paper work ask about them just savings bonds belonging to dh or myself.


I looked on the USDT and it is very clear that bonds are the property of the person they are bought for or by and it is illegal to cash them for parental use. Parents can cash them for children under the age of 18 but for the child's use not for the adult parents and only because the minor can not sign the tax form.

[Flamingo]

The problem with this scenario and also with childrens' savings accounts is that parents have access to those funds as they are considered custodial accounts. Do more research on the savings bonds - you will find that parents can sign and cash savings bonds for children. While the savings bond may be made out to the child and purchased by your FIL, it could be considered that you have access to that money. To rest your fears, directly ask your attorney about this and do not rely on what is told to you by the paralegal who cannot give you any legal advice.

[stressedNC]

Thanks for your reply. I should have been more clear it was the paralegal who prepared our case for our lawyer. I guess I am just nervous she was wrong or just giving an easy answer(too many people seem to do this now days). Like maybe she didn't feel like redoing anything?
The thing is as I am sure you are aware to actually ask the lawyer you get charged extra and I feel like I am kind of getting an oh that's fine on everything from everyone else in the office.

[Flamingo]

A paralegal cannot give you legal advice. Nor can anyone on this forum. You can be given the wrong information and base your circumcstances on that. That is the risk you take. If you do a thorough research as to savings bonds, you will find out that parents can cash in bonds belonging to minors; therefore, that money, since it is available to them, could be considered an asset. Now if your FIL had the funds in his name as custodian for your minor children, you do not have access to those funds. Your FIL does. The bonds you are talking about on here are in your childrens' names only and you, as the parent, could cash them.

I would not rely on a paralegal service for filing inasmuch as the only thing they can do is prepare your paperwork from the information you give them. They cannot represent you if there are errors or problems in your filing.

[stressedNC]

What do you do when you deal exclusively with the paralegal then? I mean they are basically the go between for us and our lawyer. It was the same at every firm we consulted with, that is just how it is done(at least here and it sounds from other peoples posts like elsewhere also). The lawyer did the initial consultation with no specifics and then every meeting was with the paralegal everything that was discussed was with the paralegal not the lawyer.

I was not seeking legal advise here just wondering if anyone had also had bonds for their kids and what their experience was.