529 plan instead of child support?

KitchenBomber · 2025-05-23T12:22:29+00:00

529 plans are still owned by a parent. Either you'd be paying it into an account your ex could take money right out of whenever she wanted (with a tax penalty on the gains) or you'd effectively be paying it to yourself which isn't going to fly.

FUMoney · 2025-05-23T10:20:00+00:00

instead of normal CS payments?

Sigh. How many times have we addressed this? You need to hit the "search" bar with this query, as it comes up again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. I'm going to copy an answer I provided to someone else just a week ago. They also had an idea about setting aside money for a child, "instead of normal" child support payments. This applies equally to you, to your situation, to your idea of funding a 529 "instead of" making court-ordered and state/federal law mandated child support payments through the state-mandated child support enforcement office.

And this answer applies to the next 20,000 people who ask this question, and applies to any state in the U.S. because federal law requires CS payments to go through the appropriate state agency -- which then triggers the federal credits and transfer payments, which results in more money to the states (which is precisely why they do this). These programs include the Federal Financial Participation, or PPP, grant; child support enforcement "incentive payments" from the federal government; and multiple "Assistance Reimbursement" programs, such as TANF, and the reimbursement can be triggered by pursuing and maintaining child support collections.

Now, sorry if you don't like my tone, but, it's clear when these questions are asked, literally zero research has been done. From my prior answer:

Far more dangerous is this stupid "child support" plan. California is one of those states where child support must go through "the system," meaning California's State Disbursement Unit, or SDU.

It is critical you understand the following: if you fail to make child support payments through the SDU, a state court could very easily conclude your support payments were not "child support" payments, but instead were "cash gifts to the mother." The court will conclude these were not child support payments because you failed to make payments to the California SDU, the agency charged with disbursing the monies. And, when the court rules your cash payments were not in fact child support payments -- the California court will order you to pay it all again, hitting you with an enormous deficit. Watch the video here.

I say again, both federal and state law require child support to be paid through the official agency. They will maintain a record of all support payments. And California and the federal government want it paid this way, as this helps the state and feds balance out and reconcile additional payments via government programs.

So, here is the bottom line. If your ex is threatening child support, you literally have no choice but to go to court and get it addressed. If you fail to do so, or if you try to skirt California's SDU with some out-of-court bullshit deal, brother, you are going to get royally fucked. Royally. Fucked.

What will happen is the mother will call the child support agency. She will be assigned a CA state representative, for free. That representative will argue your purported "child support" payments should be deemed cash "gifts" to the mother. The representative will file a legal motion to void any cash payments as official "child support" payments. The state representative will then submit a spreadsheet, showing how many "child support" payments you "missed," total them, and demand an enormous lump sum payment for these purported "cash gift" amounts, as well as monthly payments going forward until the child turns 18.

Why would they do this? Money. These state agencies love getting money out of stupid fathers. The bigger the award, the more it justifies their existence. And they love nothing more than getting one of these big arrearage awards when stupid men pay outside the official channels. They get credit for all the backpayments, credit for all the future payments -- and you get left holding one of the shittiest bags of fecal matter on the planet.

As sure as you are reading this, you can also be sure this will happen. Now, a general comment about men -- not you, men in general. They fuck this up all the time. They fuck it up because this requires reading. It requires planning. It requires legal papers. It's court and judges and dealing with a hostile mother, and her state-appointed representative. Men don't want to deal with it. So men fuck around with this stupid bullshit of extra-judicial or out-of-court "child support" payments in the very mistaken belief this will absolve them of "the process."

But one year, two years, three years down the line, it comes right back on them when the mother, on her own, calls the child support office and files an enforcement action. There are cases where men have paid cash payments for years -- only to have all those payments wiped out via judicial order, and tens of thousands of "backpayments" be paid. It's a royal "fuck you" and it happens every day throughout western democracies, and is not limited to the United States.

Stop whatever you are thinking. Get it out of your fucking head you can avoid court, California's SDU, or "the system." Get smart, get technical, get legal, start reading and strategizing. You've got to confront this head-on, and you absolutely must engage with the system you hate. Just do it. Reject any notion of an out-of-court side deal with your ex. It will fail. And you will fail. You have been warned.

Bumblebee56990 · 2025-05-23T01:57:24+00:00

Since she doesnt need your money do the account. Get it all in writing.

Available_Job6862 · 2025-05-23T00:43:08+00:00

Your ex is just plain selfish and on a child damaging ego trip. I didn't need their mother's child support money either, so I deposited it into a 529 account for them for their future. When it was time for college, they had about 140k in that account. The youngest just graduated with a BS in Nursing and older graduated in 2024 with a BS in Computer Science. Both were summa cum lade. Child support is for the children and your ex doesn't seem to understand that.

Sacramentardo · 2025-05-23T00:10:20+00:00

I don’t believe this will be legal. Child support is meant to support the child in real time and the courts treat it as such. If you and she agreed on this they could still theoretically make you pay back child support for any missed payments, even if you were doing this.

Title	529 plan instead of child support?
Author	Grouchy_Software963
Upvotes	3
Comments	9
Date	May 23, 2025 12:00 AM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/1kt5ty9/529_plan_instead_of_child_support/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/529-plan-instead-of-child-support.1552879 https://theredarchive.com/post/1552879

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