A couple of things are raising my antennae in this scenario. Why is your friend being kicked out of the house? Were her parents refusing to give her the bonds even before she was told she would be kicked out? Are her parents trying to protect your friend from her own bad spending habits? Does your friend have any substance abuse problems? Are the parents refusing to give her the bonds ever, Or just until some later date?
Speaking as a former spendthrift 18-year-old, I’m thinking that if the parents are just trying to hang onto the bonds until your friend has more financial maturity, they may be doing her a favor. (Extra-legal or not.)
Making a complicated situation even more complicated, she’s transsexual and her parents are trying to make her life as difficult as possible for her because of it. That’s also why it’s hard for her to find a job and do a bunch of other ‘normal’ activities. They refuse to give her the bonds unless she decides to act like a ‘normal man’ again.
In both Ohio and California, you can’t do a bunch of stuff until you pass the age of 25. It’s very frustrating to me, I think that since I am legally adult, I should be able to do anything that any other adult can do. I’m especially peeved about the financial aid business.
Then my advice, which is common sense rather than legal advice (which I would not give you, since I am not your lawyer), is that your friend ought to call the bar and get a lawyer. Calling the police, as has been suggested, has about a 2% chance of being helpful, as the police are likely to dismiss this as a civil issue (a family dispute) about which they can do nothing. Adding in gender issues makes it more likely that the police will view this as a family dispute. A lawyer, on the other hand, will work for your friend to help resolve this situation. Best of luck to your friend.
I suspect that most of what peeves you about the “under 25” issue isn’t something the law imposes but something that organizations (like car rental places or colleges) do. I hear you on the financial aid issue. Although I had been supporting myself since I was 20, when I applied to law school, the schools all required that my parents contribute to my education (even though they hadn’t contributed anything really for six years). Needless to say, without any of the “good” financial aid, I came out of school significantly in debt. (It was worth it, though.)
Sure they can. They can interview the parents and try to determine if the parents have the bonds or not. If the parents claim they don’t have them, then she can go ahead and report them as missing or stolen to the Treasury. If they admit that they do have them but won’t turn them over, then it’s a simple matter of stolen property recovery. The cops may not want to go that far, but they will file the police report. The district attorney will follow up on it if the police report is filed.
It puts the parents in a tough spot. If they do have the bonds and say they don’t, they are lying to the police. If they do have the bonds and simply refuse to hand them over, they are admitting to theft. Neither option helps them. The amount in question almost certainly makes this a felony.
Age 25? really? I mean, I know there are some public positions you can’t hold until you’re a certain age (like Prez - can’t be POTUS until you’re 35) but I thought 21 year olds could do pretty much anything aside from that sort of thing.
With stock given to children, the stuff has to be held by an adult “as custodian for” the child; depending on state law, the child can have full access to the account at either age 18 or 21. Which is one reason to not use that as a gifting tool unless you’re OK with the child having access to the funds at a young age. Assuming bonds work the same, and your friend is 21 or older, she should certainly have full legal access to the funds.
If they were left in trust - well, trust terms can be pretty much anything (we set up a special-needs trust for my son, which states he can have free access to the money once he’s proven he can be self-supporting - regardless of his age). Is your friend certain that the bonds are outside of any kind of trust?
Your friend’s parents are on very shaky legal ground by withholding the bonds. They have every legal right to kick her out of the house (as shitty as that is from a parenting standpoint) but no legal right to hold those bonds.
So she is ‘over’ 18 and are you going to help her ‘invest’ the proceeds from the sale of the bonds?
Did her grandfather make an agreement with her parents?
I would expect her parents’ primary interest is to prevent her from making immature/irrational decision(s) with regard to the 10K. I wouldn’t get involved in any way.
Getting involved in others’ money matters is like being the third party in a romantic triangle. Someone is going to get hurt, and it is usually the third party!
With all due respect, I have no idea how you could possibly venture this kind of categorical opinion based on the statements made in this thread.
But perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps you are familiar with the relevant statutes and caselaw in the jurisdiction. Perhaps you have already determined which states laws will govern the issue based on the relevant choice of law principles in the jurisdiction.
Perhaps you already know what kinds of bonds these are. Perhaps you have already determined whether there are trust documents concerning these bonds, and you have already reviewed these trust documents, as well as any relevant court orders concerning these trust documents.
Perhaps you already have reviewed the deceased grandfather’s will and any relevant probate court orders regarding the will.
Perhaps you have already spoken with the parents attorney to see whether there are any other issues here that would bear on the question.
If so, then I will defer to your opinion on the rights of the various individuals in this situation. But even so I would wonder why you are giving legal advice in a public forum.
Offering a legal opinion regarding this situation is like offering an opinion on how someone should self treat a sharp pain in their abdomen: “My cousin had a fever like that and pain in his side, and it turned out to be his appendix. You better remove it but quick. What you need to do is sterilize a knife and make a small incision right next to your rib cage…”
See, that’s what’s wrong with medical advice! It’s more like " a little more than 2/3 of the way from your navel to the point of your hip, make an incision following the angle of the hip bone." Sigh. I agree with the sterilization part though.
It would be fun to have a thread discussing the various laws in various jurisdictions concerning trust busting for young adults, but that is a far cry from offering specific advice to a specific person based on an incomplete set of facts.
In as much as the lawyers in the thread are saying “go speak with a lawyer”, and no lawyer is giving specific advice beyond this, folks who are not lawyers should think long and hard before putting in their two cents.
I just posted here because I didn’t see how her parents could possibly block her and I thought that a lawyer would win the case for sure. However, I wanted to be sure before I gave her any advice because if her parents know she is thinking of suing them for the bonds, they will kick her out for sure. I will let her know to proceed cautiously.
Thank you for your answers, you’ve been a big help!