Ex husband asking to be put on as co-signatory on son's bank accounts

[EmilyD]

My ex is asking to be put on as a co-signatory for my son's bank account and child trust fund - can he legally ask for this?

I feel quite bullied at moment about it. I set up the accounts but there will be a small amount of money his relatives put in the account. We live in different town's now and been apart for 4 years, i have been putting in money, he has not.

Guess its his control freak thing again.

Does he have any say with his parental responsibility to request this?

I wouldn't do this.

In fact, my DH (and we are VERY much together) doesn't have that for our childrens account.

Especially as your ExH hasn't been paying money in.

The CTF is a moot point... The money isn't accesible until the child is 18 and then it goes straight to them. I can't see how you could be a signatory for that.

It isn't a signatory just a contact name on the child trust fund.

I told him to set up his own bank account but is trying to be insistent that he is put on as a signatory. I am hoping that most banks only allow 1 signatory on children's bank accounts and then that would solve the issue.

Why does he want to be a signatory on your son's account? Does he want to be able to withdraw money?

Is he trying to make it so that you can't withdraw money for your son without his permission/presence at the bank?

If so then he sounds totally control freaky.

If you have been putting money in and he has not, and only a little bit has come from his parents, then he has no need to see what happens to the money. Especially not the ctf money as no one can touch it apart from the child when he turns 18.

Do you think he wants to see how much money there and try to get at it?

Tell him you can't understand his request at all as there's just no need for him to be a countersignatory, but if he gives you concrete good reasons then you will consider it.

Then say no.

If his parents/family are going to be putting money in, then can't he just set up a separate account for that? There's nothing to stop your son having more than one account. Demanding access to an account to which only you are currently contributing is just control-freakery!

Just say no. Problem solved. You don't have to have a 'reason', just say no.

Now he is asking for any money put in by his family (who were my family until he left us for another women) to be paid into an account he is setting up. His reason is it came from his family so he should control it!

I think I need to just take back the control, there will always be something he feels he can bully me on.

Very complicated situation but when we divorced he agreed I had 90% of the equity from house sale so my son and i could afford a house with a manageable mortgage and since I met someone else he now always harps on about me financially crippling him as he wants to buy a house and can't now - he married the woman he had an affair of. However I have cut his child maintenance by nearly a half because i now live 150 miles away and so he has extra travel to do and child expenses when he has my son.

I think i just need to harden up, the divorce settlement at the time was agreed by him and deamed fair by judge 3 years ago now so hassling me about anything like this I think I am within my rights to say is inappropriate and i won't be discussing with him.

If it isn't this it will be something else.

Colditz, you have the answer right. Rather than justifying anything i will just say no

How old is your DS? I'm sure once he's 7 the account can be transferred to childs own name. That's what we did with our DCs. Anyway only one parents signature is required and that's yours so just say no.

you say in your first post

'My ex is asking to be put on as a co-signatory'

then say it's a contact name.

have you found out what this implies?

if you get on well with your ex inlaws, then do what i did. After 3 yrs of him handing over any gift money from gp's to dd, which would go form their account to his to my hand, i just emailed them and said from now on would they just have my account details and then he wouldn't be involved.

this evolved becuase one time he lied about the money amount and claimed it was from him.

cheeky bastard op, it's not his money.

He basically just wants to "manage" it.

The CTF fund is in my son's name, there is no cosignatory on it so nothing can be done on that. I haven't put any money into that account so it is irrelevant.

The bank account is currently in my son's name with myself as signatory (he is 7 in 2 weeks).

I suggested to ex that he set up an account he can manage or that Thomas has himself, he is fine with this, what he wants is the money that has been put in from his family(there was a sum of a few thousand that i put in from equity to equal money which was left to myself and ex from his parents before). However to take this out would lose the interest for my son and i don't see why i should do that because my pedantic ex wants it to be seen that it came from his family? It would be obvious that money has come from all sources so i don't see the issue. It is because there will presumably be more money in the account i hold for my son than my ex? That is his issue.

the few thou for you son is your sons, it should be left where it is, no matter who gave it. He obviously thinks you will spend it as you have access to it, and it's as tho he wants also to have the right to spend it.

is the money you mentioned given to you and your ex also only in your name? I would give his half to him out of that.

The money that was left for ex and I is the money i have put into my son's account. His father said to me that it was not to go to my ex husband and should be for me and my son. So to alleviate any issues I put it into my son's account only. I don't intend to ever take any money out of my son's account, it is his money for his future.