Should parents and adult kids living on their own have joint bank and financial accounts?

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
21

I’m still on S2’s UGMA account. He hasn’t initiated transferring it to his name, and is keeping it as start-up money when he returns from living overseas and gets his own apartment. If I need to transfer $ to him for the occasional medical bill, we both have accounts at the same place, so it’s instant. I don’t do venmo or buy stuff via my phone. He has given me his bank account info in case any checks arrive here and need depositing.

We don’t have any shared accounts with S1. Same bank, yes.

It was easy to draw a bright line on this. We had no intention of letting our parents know our financial situation (and they still have no clue), and we extended the same courtesy to our sons.

That said, if a responsible adult needs to be on an account to help an elderly parent, that’s another story. My BIL is on FIL’s account and I have absolute trust in him. My sister is on my dad’s account, though he still does his own bills. I can see why, as she is local. My parents have given her substantial help over the years, which has caused some hard feelings in the family. She may get flak no matter how transparent she is.

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22

I no longer have joint accounts with my children, as all are over 21, but the accounts of the 2 youngest still show up on my online banking. They will both occasionally ask me to move money over for them (it’s a small credit union) or use that account to pay me back for something I loaned them. OTOH, H has a joint account with his mother and I had one with my aunt before she died. It made paying for her funeral much easier.

23

My kids, all in their 30s, still have the original joint credit union accounts from when they first started banking. They all have since opened additional accounts that are not co-owned with me, from which they manage their financial lives. However, those joint accounts get used when we need to get money to each other for shared cost items., or repayment for things bought on the others’ behalf (eg. split case of wine :wine_glass:).

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