Question about 529b accounts

Financial Planning - Financial planning in general. (Moderated) 

  Yahoo!   Google   Windows Live   del.icio.us   digg   Netscape

Subject Author Date Question about 529b accounts Sharon 12-07-2007  Re: Question about 529b accounts BreadWithSpam 12-09-2007  Re: Question about 529b accounts Sharon 12-10-2007
Posted by Sharon on December 7, 2007, 5:05 pm         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!" Posted by on December 9, 2007, 5:00 pm frey@encompasserve.org (Sharon) writes: > 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 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. -- 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? http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting Posted by Sharon on December 10, 2007, 4:36 pm writes: > frey@encompasserve.org (Sharon) writes: > >> 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 > > 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.         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!" Similar Threads Posted 529b savings plan and need based financial inpact ?? January 24, 2007, 7:26 pm Combining various IRA Accounts November 19, 2007, 3:13 pm Bank Accounts June 13, 2008, 7:24 pm upon death - what happens to your accounts August 30, 2008, 5:52 am Questions About Consolidating IRA Accounts March 11, 2007, 3:33 pm consolidate fund accounts August 9, 2007, 6:06 pm can one have multiple Roth IRA accounts October 19, 2007, 10:30 am one small point about HSA accounts October 24, 2007, 10:46 am CDs vs Online Savings Accounts March 1, 2008, 7:38 pm Am I overcontributing to retirement accounts? August 7, 2008, 4:08 pm