Question about savings account on fafsa

its about question 40, “enter the amount you have in cash, savings, checking accounts as of today?”. I share a joint savings account with my mother, and she has the most control over it as it is under her official bank account. Its not officially “mine” yet as I’m 17. Do I still report the amount I have in that or do I put 0?? Idk if its counts as I’m still a minor.

If the money is yours…it is listed as your asset.

If the money is your mom’s it is listed as her asset.

@BelknapPoint am I missing anything?

Ok, thank you !!!

thumper1 is right. It doesn’t matter who has “control” over the money in the account or that you are a minor. If you earned the money or it was gifted to you, and unless you gifted it in turn to someone else, it legally is your money and should be reported as your asset on FAFSA.

My kids have a savings account that they deposit birthday money and work earnings into. It is their account, but I am on the account as well.
It’s their money so we reported the balance in the account as of the day we filed FAFSA.

A joint bank account is 100% owned by both (or all) the people named on the account. You can go down to the bank and withdraw all the money in it. Your mother can go down to the bank and withdraw it all. It is up to the owners to decide who the money belongs to. The bank isn’t going to fight about it but considers either party the legal owner.

Don’t report the money twice. Decide how you want to report it and do so.

In a joint bank account, either account holder may have equal access to the funds, but that doesn’t mean that both account holders have the same legal right to use the funds for any purpose.

I always considered the ownerof joint bank accounts , the first named when only one name shown on the checks. All of my kids’ first accounts had me as a “silent “ partner on them. As did my mother and MIL. My husband I have joint accounts but both of our names show up on the statements and checks.

I don’t know how the legal right to use the funds differ i the two cases.

How FAFSA looks at this, I don’t know.

To the bank, it does. Joint tenancy on a bank account means both parties are equal owners of 100% of the funds and yes, can LEGALLY use those funds. No crime in withdrawing money that is yours… Yes, same legal right to use the funds.

The parties can decide not to divide the account equally, but the law will. No different than if 2 people own a house. Each owns all of it. One person might claim the kitchen but all names on the deed have the right to use it all. Legally.

“Joint Bank Account Rules: Who Owns What? All joint bank accounts have two or more owners. Each owner has the full right to withdraw, deposit, and otherwise manage the account’s funds. While some banks may label one person as the primary account holder, that doesn’t change the fact everyone owns everything—together.” https://www.valuepenguin.com/banking/joint-bank-account-rules#rules

OP, look at thumper’s post #1. The first issue is whose money is it, really and truly. There can be many reasons two names show. That alone doesn’t define who’s asset it gets listed as, for Fafsa. Who can withdraw isnt it, either.

You need to make the right decisions about this, so student assets get listed as the student’s and parent assets are listed as the parent’s. The Fafsa folks have slightly different ways of treating these two categories, when processing.

So figure that out, then be consistent. Is it your asset or hers, regardless of two names on the account.

You might want to open your own account in the future, especially if you have any financial aid refunds that are going to be deposited into it
Those don’t have to be included in your assets on FAFSA, and it might be easier to keep track of this if they aren’t mingled with your mom’s money.

If you have student money in one of your mothers shoeboxes in her closet, it’s still your money.

If the money belongs to the student, it is reported as student money regardless of whose name is in the account.

If the money belongs to the parents, it’s reported as a parent asset regardless of where it is or whose name is on the account.

Please don’t confuse the names on the accounts or the types of accounts with the actual person the money belongs to.

The FAFSA wants to know who the money belongs to and doesn’t care one bit what kind of account it is or who is the owner of that account.

Wrong. You are conflating what a bank can allow joint account owners to do with account funds and what legal obligations joint account owners have in certain situations regarding use of money in a joint account. As this is beyond the scope of the thread, I won’t go into detail and cite court decisions, but I will provide a basic example:

A woman and her elderly mother are joint account holders on a regular bank checking account that holds a substantial amount of money. All the money in the account came from years of savings accumulated by the mother from her career in medicine, and also from an inheritence when her husband died after a long career as a distinguished attorney. The mother made her daughter a joint account holder a few years ago so that the daughter could assist her with basic financial matters such as paying bills. The daughter then violated her mother’s trust in her, drained the account, and used the money for her own benefit including extravagant vacations, lottery tickets and gambling losses in Las Vegas. It was perfectly proper for the bank to allow the daughter’s withdrawals, since she was a joint account holder, and at the time there was no indication that the money withdrawn by the daughter would be used for any questionable purpose. However, it’s highly likely that a court would find that the daughter acted in a way contrary to law.

This is a case where what matters is what the Fafsa folks need to see: student $ vs parent $. Not the types of accounts or different circumstances for using money, whose signatures, whose name is listed first, ages, or myriad other account set-up details under state/fed laws. Fafsa just needs to know whose assets/what numbers.

When you make a logical and justifiable decision, IF the Fafsa folks or a college question you later (possible, not probable,) you can just explain this logic you used. (Eg, “It’s my money in an account that also has her name on it.” Or, “The funds are hers, my name only appears in case of an emergency.”)