CTRs on Totten Trusts & TXUTMA Accounts

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Question:

When completing a CTR for a deposit to a Totten trust account "John Doe Trustee for Sally Doe," who should be indicated as the beneficiary of this transaction on the CTR if John Doe's SSN was used to open this account? If a deposit requiring a CTR is made to a TXUTMA account "Sally Doe, Beneficiary TXUTMA, John Doe, Custodian," who should be indicated as the beneficiary on the CTR when Sally Doe's SSN was used to open this account?

Answer:

In my opinion, it matters not whose SSN was attached to the account for the purpose of filing CTRs. What matters is whether the individual has an interest in the account. In the case of the Totten trust account, John Doe is the owner. He gets listed in Section A of the CTR. Sally Doe has no legal interest in the account. The Totten trust designation is completely revocable so I would not recommend including Sally on the CTR.

However, in the case of the UTMA account, Sally is the legal owner of the funds and John is her custodian. Since John controls the account in a fiduciary capacity, I would use the logic in the answer to Question 23 here to support my argument that John would be listed in Section A as custodian and Sally would be listed in a separate Section A entry since she legally benefits from the deposit.

First published on BankersOnline.com 3/23/09