On Dec 10, 4:36 pm, f...[at]encompasserve.org (Sharon) wrote:
- quote -

With the caveat that I do NOT do much 529 work at all -

Many brokerage houses and investment companies allow you to list
someone as an "Interested Party". When they allow this they will
almost always send a copy of the statements and confirmations to that
interested party. This happens frequently when an accountant or
attorney is working with the investment professional on behalf of the
client and we're seeing it more and more with adult children being
listed as interested parties for their elderly parents. The
interested party has NO ABILITY to make any changes in what happens in
the account nor can they take any money out - but it is a way to be
kept abreast of what's happening in the account.

Not all companies allow this so you'll have to have the registered
representative check with the investment company and see if its
available. If so you will need the owner of record to sign off on you
being included as an interested party.

On another note - unless your CPA was also a Licensed Securities
Agent, this is what happens when you use unlicensed and unregulated
agents. As a CPA, they may well understand that tax issues, but
unless they are licensed for securities work AND they do a bit of it,
listing an additional interested party is something that many outside
the business aren't aware of.

Good luck,
Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA


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frey[at]encompasserve.org (Sharon) writes:

- quote -

He can't. It's neither your money nor his money anymore.
He may be partially, even mostly responsible for this, but
you are also at least partially responsible. He could not
have done this without you signing the documents.

- quote -

It's not like it's a loss - your sibling is going to use
the money for your nephews, no? As you intended, I
assume.

You can certainly set up new 529s with the nephews as
beneficiaries and you as owner in the future for all
future contributions. And if your nephews don't go
to college - or for any other reason you like, actually,
you can change the beneficiaries to someone else later -
including yourself should you decide to take some classes,
or your own kid when/if you have one.


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In article <yobtzmr7cry.fsf[at]panix1.panix.com> , BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net writes:
- quote -

It's what I *thought* I did, but clearly the CPA who set up the account
s for me had other ideas. Again reinforces my desire to not do any more
business with him.
I'm going to make him fix it, and if he can't or won't then I'll
probably abandon them and start new ones. (By abandon I just mean not
contribute to them anymore.)
Thanks for all the responses!


- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"

Sorry...

http://news.morningstar.com/articlen...aspx?id=187673

You can always call AF and ask. The number is 800-421-0180. If they
refuse to give you any info, it is because you are not the owner. AF
is required by regulation to send out statements periodically even if
there is no activity in the account (the dividend reinvestments count
as activity, I believe). As Bread said, it sounds like you setup the
account in a manner that disavowed all your rights and control.

On a side note, I'm guessing the AF plan you refer to is the one
sponsored by Virginia. Morningstar consistently ranks it among the top
five BROKER-sold 529 plans. Since it seems that you have no ability to
move the plan, at least you can rest assured that the CPA appears to
have been diligent in selecting a plan. IF the parents are the account
owners, AND you still want to convince them to move the plan, I would
read Morningstar's report first. Alot of 529 plans out there are just
plain awful.

frey[at]encompasserve.org (Sharon) writes:

- quote -

How are the accounts set up? A 529 account has an "owner"
and a "beneficiary". You are apparently neither and it
wouldn't surprise me that you wouldn't get statements.

Having made the gift to the account, but not being the
owner, you no longer have any rights to it whatsoever,
and as a matter at least of privacy, they probably are
not *allowed* to send you statements or confirmations
unless the owner sets you up to get duplicates.

Since the kids are your nephews, you *could* have set
up the accounts with yourself as the owner and them
as the beneficiaries, but it sounds like that's not
what you did.

See here for some nice info about who can be a
beneficiary by relation to an owner, etc.

http://www.collegetuitionbenefit.net/plans/faqs.htm

Anyway, if your sibling is getting statements, you
just need to let the sibling know that you've made
a contribution and would like to be informed when
they get the confirmation. And if you want more
input, you need to talk to your sibling.

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Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
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Several years ago I started two American Funds 529b accounts for my
nephews. I did this through a financial adviser/CPA, who I subsequently
stopped doing business with. (Through no fault of his.) Since then I've
never recieved any statements AF, nor any receipt or acknowledgement of
contributions I've sent. They do send statements to the children's parents,
which is okay. But as the person who started and contributes to the accounts,
I sure would like to know what's going on with them and if my contributions
are even being recieved.
Because of this IMO horrible customer service, I want to move the
accounts over to another money manager, maybe Vanguard or someone. But before
I do, I need to ask if this is normal for all 529b accounts or if maybe the CPA
just set them up funny. Any advice?

- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"