I am an adviser to an individual, “Mary” who was named the custodian of an IRA for the benefit of a minor, “Timmy”, whose mother, “Grace”, died several years ago. Grace had a 403(b) account naming Timmy as beneficiary. Mary was Grace’s sister. Grace had been divorced and was the custodial parent to her minor son. Since Grace’s death, the biological father, “Fred”, has been raising his son. Timmy recently turned age 18 and as soon as that occurred, Fred called Mary (his former sister-in-law) and instructed her to release the funds immediately. He wanted to have access to the money before the holidays. Mary explained to Fred that her sister’s wishes were to have this money available for Timmy’s college expenses. Mary believes Fred wants to have access to his son’s inheritance for his own benefit including holiday shopping and to purchase a new car. Timmy doesn’t even have a drivers license yet. All parties are residence of Pennsylvania. When Grace died about 7 years ago, a nonspousal inherited IRA account was established and was funded by a custodian to custodian transfer from Grace’s 403(b) account. Timmy has been receiving the required minimum distributions based on his life expectancy. I suggested to Mary that she seek the advice of a Pennsylvania-licensed attorney well versed in estate law and the PA state laws relating to Uniform Transfers to Minors accounts. Based on my own limited research on the subject, it appears that Timmy’s inherited IRA account may fall under the PA UTMA law in which case Mary may be able to maintain the custodianship of the account until Timmy reaches age 21. This would allow Mary to utilize the funds primarily for Timmy’s college expenses. He is now a senior in high school. Mary is afraid that the father will exercise undue influence on his son who Mary describes as timid and end up spending the funds on other things for his own enjoyment. Can anyone weigh in on this situation and offer an opinion specifically as it relates to Mary’s ability to maintain custodianship until Timmy reaches age 21, not 18?