<p>I have a number of series EE Savings Bonds that have my child's name and his or her social security number followed by "or" and my name without my social security number.</p>
<p>For the purposes of toting up parents' assets, I called the College Board this morning, and they said if my name is there along with the "or," i.e., CHILD'S NAME OR PARENTS NAME, it should be considered a parental asset.</p>
<p>But I wasn't sure about that answer, since the children in question are not minors, and the second person I called sounded definitive in saying the first person was wrong and that if the child's name and social is first, it's their asset even if there is an "or" on the bond.</p>
<p>So I just followed up the two phone calls with an email to see if I can get a tie breaker. I know the Treasury Department recognizes co-ownership, but I'm assuming the Profile people can set their own rules. (I sent Treasure an email to get their take on this.)</p>
<p>Any thoughts about this?</p>
<p>I'm surprised the Profile help section does not address the issue of ownership more explicitly since this would appear to be a not uncommon situation.</p>
<p>My kids have bonds like these. They got them from grandparents and other relatives for birthdays, Christmas, whatever while minors so a parent name was put on them. When my first started college I googled extensively for fafsa purposes. The consensus was that these sorts of bonds, purchased for minors with a parent on them are student assets. That the students are no longer minors doesn’t really change anything.</p>
<p>Most of ours luckily only have our children listed because our relatives didn’t trust us :)</p>
<p>The sad part is, any parent can redeem their young child’s EE bonds without their name on it, as long as they have full custody of the child, so the parent’s name was never required in the first place.</p>
<p>Right, because a six-year-old would have difficulty redeeming a savings bond on his/her own. The important thing is, what did the parent do with the money after redeeming the bond that had the kid’s name on it? The bond belonged to the kid and the money from the bond belonged to the kid. Using the money for a purpose that didn’t benefit the child would be stealing.</p>
<p>No, a parent has the right to all of a child’s assets and belonging. If they are earnings, then some states have laws about it (the Jackie Coogan laws in california) but just assets? Parents have the power to manage or spend the funds. Not stealing.</p>
<p>…for the benefit of the child. If a parent takes the $1000 gift money that a grandparent gave to the child and spends it on booze and blackjack, that’s stealing.</p>
<p>I received this reply from the Treasury Department, which is consistent with my understanding, that both parent and child are co-owners with equal rights. If the College Board’s rule is that the bonds in this situation are a child asset, that’s their own rule, expressing the idea these bonds are customarily purchased for children. OTOH, why shouldn’t the Profie set up a category for jointly owned (parent-child, sibling-sibling) assets?</p>
<p>As a rule, the name appearing first and SSN gets assigned the ownership. I guess the question comes down to who gets the 1099 or other tax tag when it comes to reporting the gains that is the issue. I’m joint on a a number of accounts with my MIL and mother but the tax statements are all in their name, under their SSNs, and I don’t report the interest on my 1040 forms; they do on theirs. So with the bonds, who gets tagged for the gains in terms of IRS income tax notification and payment of taxes? </p>