【正文】 nship and permits transfers of property to minors by vesting them with legal title and equitable interest to the property, while granting possessory rights, powers, and duties to custodians of the property on behalf of minors. As such, the UTMA, with which family law practitioners should be familiar, permits actions that can be of tremendous benefit to minors, but simultaneously makes minors vulnerable to the negligence or willfully adverse actions of the custodians of property transferred under the UTMA. Family law attorneys should inquire whether UTMA property exists. The UTMA’s requirement that custodians affirmatively transfer custodial property to minors once they reach the required age. A custodian’s affirmative duty to transfer custodial property, such as ownership of a life insurance policy, leaves a minor susceptible to a custodian who fails to transfer the property, whether due to negligence or willfulness. Instead of an affirmative duty to transfer custodial property, the UTMA should be modified to provide for an automatic transfer of 7 ownership and possession of a life insurance policy upon a minor’s reaching the requisite age. But until the UTMA is modified, attorneys handling divorce and child custody proceedings should inquire whether a minor is an owner or beneficiary of a life insurance policy under the UTMA and if so, ensure that the custodian listed on the policy will protect the best interests of the minor and transfer the policy or proceeds at the proper time. If it is questionable whether the named custodian of the property will protect the best interests of the minor, an attorney involved with divorce or child custody proceedings should seek to have the UTMA custodian changed. This can be acplished by having the custodian resign and a successor custodian named or by petitioning the court. For attorneys handling a divorce proceeding, ascertaining whether a minor is an owner of a life insurance policy or annuity under the UTMA (or any UTMA property) is important since such property is not marital property of the , it should not affect calculating the distribution of marital property. CREATION OF CUSTODIAL PROPERTY AND CUSTODIAN’S DUTIES UNDER UTMA Under 167。 or an insurance pany may be unable to reach the custodian or minorturned adult due to outdated contact information. Second, a minorturned adult who is unsuccessful in getting a custodian to plete a transfer of ownership form may have to resort to costly litigation. Given the generally small death benefit amount of policies under the UTMA, it may not be cost effective for the minorturned adult to bring an action against the custodian to force the custodian to transfer possession or “ownership” of the policy. Third, requiring a custodian to plete a transfer of ownership form to transfer an insurance policy is inexpedient for custodians, minors, and insurance panies. It requires custodians to contact the proper insurance pany and plete the necessary form. It places a burden on minorsturned adults to contact and force uncooperative custodians to plete transfer of ownership forms if they forget or 12 refuse to plete the forms, whether by litigation or otherwise. If a minorturned adult fails to bring an action against a custodian within a jurisdiction’s statute of limitations, the minorturned adult could lose possessory rights to the policy altogether. It also forces insurance panies either to assume the burden of sending out such forms to custodians or to properly monitor the policies in such a way that custodians are not allowed to exercise any custodial authority over the property once the minor bees an adult. Electronic Note Regardless of the scenario, placing an affirmative duty on a custodian to plete a transfer of ownership form for an insurance policy is unnecessary. First, an ownership and possessory interest to intangible personal property such as a life insurance contract do not require the physical transfer of an object like other personal property. Completion of a form, therefore, should not be required. The UTMA should allow an electronic notation to be made in the insurance pany’s files permitting an automatic transfer to the minor to occur upon the minor’s attainment of the statutory age. Further, a custodian is not an owner of an insurance policy in the strict sense when acting on behalf of a min