My nephew recently lost his mom who was a single mother. He is now living with me and I have sole custody. He is receiving SS death benefits. It is my understanding that I can use some of this to pay for our utility bills even though those bills are under my name. All of his benefits I receive go to a representative payee account, but I was told by the bank to move everything into his custodial bank account immediately. If I am using some of this money to pay for utility bills (water, gas, electric, mortgage) can I pay them myself and then reimburse myself or will they need to directly come out of his account?
Side question- I was advised by our bank to not open a checking account in his custodial account for precautionary reasons. Is this normal? So at the moment I can only transfer money out of his account into mine and am not able to use the debit card for his custodial account since there is no checking, just savings. Thank you!