If your kids have UTMAs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13 yo

He has 12k in utma
30k in Roth
300k in 529.

How did a 13 year old earn money + contribute according to the annual limits for a Roth now worth $30k

Side jobs such as cleaning service for rental properties.

Cleaning rental properties owned by their parents I’m sure. My young kids “earn” money as models in my influencer videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of these replies suggest children of wealthy parents. Keep in mind that depending on what the timeline is for intended use of the UTMA funds, your child may be better off inheriting shares directly from you with a corresponding step up in cost basis.

I.e. if you're wealthy enough to be funding substantial UTMAs, you may also be wealthy enough to directly assist with your kids' cash needs in their 20s, rather than having them realize taxable gains in their UTMAs at that point.

Our kids likely wont inherit from us until they are in their 60s. The UTMA is for their 20s and 30s.

And as dor kids realizing taxable gains from UTMAs in their 20s, far better for them to do that at 0% or 15% than for us to do it at 23.8%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Maryland, I think they get their accounts when they turn 21.

+1 -- yes, it's 21. Just went through this with my kid

[Anonymous]

Mine has one, they are 7 and it has $100,000, but it gets used for tuition. I have mixed feelings about it but it was related to estate planning and it's other family members' money, not mine. Everyone says they don't want it to pile up in case child is in some kind of precarious position at 21. But I worry about it some. I don't care if they blow it on something stupid, I'm just worried about them being in a mental health or substance abuse situation. But obviously I hope that won't be an issue.

[Anonymous]

My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

Not to mention they should be reporting taxes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

They will not let you transfer them. The kid has to. It’s impossible for them not to know.

[Anonymous]

Mine has one, they are 7 and it has $100,000, but it gets used for tuition. I have mixed feelings about it but it was related to estate planning and it's other family members' money, not mine. Everyone says they don't want it to pile up in case child is in some kind of precarious position at 21. But I worry about it some. I don't care if they blow it on something stupid, I'm just worried about them being in a mental health or substance abuse situation. But obviously I hope that won't be an issue.

am in similar situation. my dad and stepmom, who are pretty secretive and controllig about money, made a big show out of "saving for kids college plus" and told us we didn't need to, and this was in lieu of an inheritance for us from them (we are financially fine, and this is fine and a really great idea--helps us save more for retirement instead of college). but they were also so secretive about it, never sharing how much and my stepmom is very unpredictable about these things. so I saved some money for college just in case it wasn't enough. Then they asked us to start paying the taxes on the accounts which is how we discovered they were utmas and not 529, as they had led us to believe. And we finally found out last year....Each kid has 300k plus in it. I feel really torn--i mean, its a ton of money and while I'm grateful, I'm also worried that my kids will have access to that at 18, and really wish they would have been willing to speak with us about it--but anyway, what's done is done. So now we are working to educate our kids on financial responsibility but I'm not sure its going to work with one of our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

They will not let you transfer them. The kid has to. It’s impossible for them not to know.

Transfer what? The funds? The kids know of the accounts but not my deposits made AFTER they were 18 and they were no longer UTMA accounts (as I originally said is when I began these gifts).

Why should they know - not sure it is helpful for any reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

Not to mention they should be reporting taxes

They do. Who would think they wouldn’t??!! But it’s a 1099 sent to the cpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just put all monetary gifts they’ve received since birth in them. We don’t contribute. The 15 yo adds her babysitting money. Most of it is invested in ETFs.

10: $27k
15: $34k

Please do some additional bragging about who is gifting your kids $2500+/ year.

This thread is bonkers! (And I’m rich.)

I posted this. No one is giving my kids $2500 a year each. We’ve steadily invested it and my kids have mostly been alive during a period of good market growth. If they got $2500/year there’d be way more than $27k in the 10 year old’s account. But I come from a north east family where no one gives physical gifts. It’s always checks. So instead of a couple hundred worth of toys, my parents give a check for $300 for each birthday and Christmas and $25 comes like clockwork for every piddly holiday like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Mine has one, they are 7 and it has $100,000, but it gets used for tuition. I have mixed feelings about it but it was related to estate planning and it's other family members' money, not mine. Everyone says they don't want it to pile up in case child is in some kind of precarious position at 21. But I worry about it some. I don't care if they blow it on something stupid, I'm just worried about them being in a mental health or substance abuse situation. But obviously I hope that won't be an issue.

am in similar situation. my dad and stepmom, who are pretty secretive and controllig about money, made a big show out of "saving for kids college plus" and told us we didn't need to, and this was in lieu of an inheritance for us from them (we are financially fine, and this is fine and a really great idea--helps us save more for retirement instead of college). but they were also so secretive about it, never sharing how much and my stepmom is very unpredictable about these things. so I saved some money for college just in case it wasn't enough. Then they asked us to start paying the taxes on the accounts which is how we discovered they were utmas and not 529, as they had led us to believe. And we finally found out last year....Each kid has 300k plus in it. I feel really torn--i mean, its a ton of money and while I'm grateful, I'm also worried that my kids will have access to that at 18, and really wish they would have been willing to speak with us about it--but anyway, what's done is done. So now we are working to educate our kids on financial responsibility but I'm not sure its going to work with one of our kids.

My dad makes my kids meet with him annually to go over allocations. And he checks in with them about monthly. It's his way of teaching them about money. He tells them it's their retirement fund and he doesn't want them to touch it until they are ready to retire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Mine has one, they are 7 and it has $100,000, but it gets used for tuition. I have mixed feelings about it but it was related to estate planning and it's other family members' money, not mine. Everyone says they don't want it to pile up in case child is in some kind of precarious position at 21. But I worry about it some. I don't care if they blow it on something stupid, I'm just worried about them being in a mental health or substance abuse situation. But obviously I hope that won't be an issue.

am in similar situation. my dad and stepmom, who are pretty secretive and controllig about money, made a big show out of "saving for kids college plus" and told us we didn't need to, and this was in lieu of an inheritance for us from them (we are financially fine, and this is fine and a really great idea--helps us save more for retirement instead of college). but they were also so secretive about it, never sharing how much and my stepmom is very unpredictable about these things. so I saved some money for college just in case it wasn't enough. Then they asked us to start paying the taxes on the accounts which is how we discovered they were utmas and not 529, as they had led us to believe. And we finally found out last year....Each kid has 300k plus in it. I feel really torn--i mean, its a ton of money and while I'm grateful, I'm also worried that my kids will have access to that at 18, and really wish they would have been willing to speak with us about it--but anyway, what's done is done. So now we are working to educate our kids on financial responsibility but I'm not sure its going to work with one of our kids.

My dad makes my kids meet with him annually to go over allocations. And he checks in with them about monthly. It's his way of teaching them about money. He tells them it's their retirement fund and he doesn't want them to touch it until they are ready to retire.

What if they are ready at 30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My young adults have them. Began with savings from work after ira contributions and at 18, I begin putting $19k in. The latter they don’t know about but they know they have 10-15k from working in there and don’t touch that.

If your kid is over 18, even if the age of majority in your state is 21, you should really be showing them the statements imo.

They will not let you transfer them. The kid has to. It’s impossible for them not to know.

Transfer what? The funds? The kids know of the accounts but not my deposits made AFTER they were 18 and they were no longer UTMA accounts (as I originally said is when I began these gifts).

Why should they know - not sure it is helpful for any reason.

If your young adult kids are stupid enough to not look at their accounts, that’s on them.