Hello, quick question/clarification. Is it possible for me as a grandparent to purchase I-Bond's for my minor grandchildren as a gift directly from my Treasury Direct Account or do I need the grandchildren's parent to establish their account because I am not a legal guardian? I did read the information on the TD site, but I was left unclear on that one point. I also did work part way through the online form for opening an account for one grandchild and I didn't see anywhere that it asked if I was a parent/guardian. Anyone have experience and know what is required? Thank you in advance and I wish all of the DA community a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Holiday season and New Year!
Answers
from Treasury Direct, "Savings Bonds As Gifts":
You can give gift bonds to adults or children. A child under 18 can have a TreasuryDirect account only if a parent or other adult custodian creates a minor linked account.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/planning/plan_gifts.htm
from "Learn More About Linked Accounts":
TreasuryDirect linked accounts allow individual account owners, and Account Managers on behalf of entity accounts, the flexibility of managing a securities portfolio customized to your needs in an account that is "linked" to your TreasuryDirect account. Open a Minor account (individuals only) or Custom account, or use the Conversion account to convert your paper securities into electronic form. TreasuryDirect linked accounts make it easy to keep track of all your savings securities in a single account. Linked accounts may only be accessed through your Primary TreasuryDirect account. For your added convenience, holdings for each Linked account are kept separately from your Primary TreasuryDirect account.
Minor Account: This is a custodial account that a parent, natural guardian, or person providing chief support establishes for a child under the age of 18. The Minor account is linked to your primary TreasuryDirect account and only you, as the custodian, can access the account. You may purchase, redeem, receive gift deliveries, and perform other transactions within the account on behalf of the minor.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/help/TDHelp/help_ug_126-LinkedAccountLearnMore.htm
Ideally the parents should create the account (which, if they don't already have accounts of their own with TD, could involve all the associated potential pitfalls that could result in needing a signature guarantee) and conversing with and coordinating with the parents would likely be the biggest time-eating factor. So it's still possible to get it done this year, if all goes smoothly, but it'll only take a few wrinkles to delay it to the new year. Their posting made no mention of a desired timeframe for the gifting, so that likely may not be an issue of concern for them.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/savbond/otc/HowtobuygiftsavingsbondsinTreasuryDirecttipsheet.p...
As for your specific question, I suggest discussing it with the child's parents. In order to gift you'll need the child's TD account number, so you'll need to get that from the parent if
1) they already have an account set up for the child or
2) can be persuaded to create one so you can gift to it.
While you might be able to set one up yourself (as in the TD site likely won't prevent you from doing so, as the site has no real way of telling what your relationship with the child really is beyond what you tell it), it would be best to communicate with the parents first to get permission to do so and to be sure they don't already have one or plan to one day set one up (and to be sure that they or someone else hasn't already bought the year's 10k allotment for the child, as your gift will count towards the child annual limit).
ETA oh, and if you do end up creating one for the child, be sure to share the child's account number with the parents, so that they (or other people they give permission to, such as other relatives like aunts and uncles) can gift to it as well.