My son 's father has $50K in a UTMA for my son’s college education. Neither my son nor Iwish to be in contact with his father. The UTMA money is in Ameriprise for the benefit of my son.
How can he get the money transferred to him, once he reaches the state’s UTMA majority age of 21, without direct contact with his father who is the current custodian ?
I would have your son contact Ameriprise.
Ameriprise probably won’t do anything until either A) the custodian notifies the account holder that the custodianship is terminating because the beneficiary has reached the age of majority; or B) a court of proper jurisdiction orders Ameriprise to do something.
So if the father/custodian doesn’t do anything at the proper time, the easiest/most practical/least expensive thing to do is to contact him and nicely ask him to do what he should be doing anyway. If he refuses or simply doesn’t act, other than doing nothing, I don’t see any option besides taking legal action.
Be sure you check all information about UTMA’s. They are usually counted as income for a child, because they are not exclusively for educational purposes. It could adversely impact financial aid.
I know that for both our kids, I left the money in the UTMA until I was done paying for college out of them, as it was far easier for me to manage it myself. Our broker (Vanguard) certainly didn’t come bothering me about it. But as I recall, my kids could request the fund transfer themselves; I did the legwork to figure out what they needed to do, but as I recall it was already their money once they reached majority.
A student beneficiary gaining control of a UTMA because the custodianship terminates at the age of majority is not a financial aid income event for the student. UTMA funds should have been and will continue to be reported as a student asset (exception: UTMA 529 accounts), but the simple fact that the student now has control does not magically turn it into income.
@BelknapPoint, thank you. I kept thinking I worded it wrong, and you said what I meant to spectacularly. It should already be a counted as a student asset. I’m still not thinking clearly from that pesky appendectomy! 
The older I get, the more frequent I have those kind of moments. Best wishes on a speedy recovery!
Thank you all so much for your info. Will ask my son to contact his father. Wish him luck !!