Good morning,
We recently upgraded our platform system with the same vendor and at the same time changed our forms vendor.
When going through the new system and forms, they have include a field to "Include the Minor as an Authorized Signer" on an UTMA account.

We have never had this as an option before in the past and were not comfortable that this should be an option. We consulted past Q&A here on BankersOnline, reviewed the Florida State Statutes and submitted our request for this field to be hidden as we felt comfortable that the minor should not be permitted to sign on the UTMA account.

The response that we received back was that this field is correct and that they did not find anything against it, so at this time the minor's name can be selected as an authorized signer.

I am reaching out to gather some opinions - Are we stuck on saying "no" because that was simply how we've always done it? We can't find anything in the Statutes that says a Minor CAN sign on the account and in fact it just seems to fly against what the Statute intends. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And it's my bet that your forms vendor can't produce anything warranting their inclusion of that option. I agree that UTMA statutes don't permit a minor's direct access to the funds in the account. This situation is ripe for a standoff with the vendor. You should demand documentation of its position.

In the meantime, you'll have to ensure that your new accounts staff don't allow that box to be checked, and that they have a script to explain that the option is not available.

Thank you so much for responding, John - much appreciated! I am more confident now to continue pressing our point with renewed gusto.