A representative payee account is a deposit account used to manage Social Security or SSI benefits for individuals who are unable to manage their own finances. A representative payee—appointed by the Social Security Administration (SSA)—oversees the account and ensures that the funds are used for the beneficiary’s needs, saving any remaining money, while reporting all transactions to the SSA. This is often required for most minor children (under age 18), adults who are legally incompetent, and adults with mental or physical disabilities.
Your staff can open representative payee accounts directly in our Consumer Staff-Led Account Opening product, reducing the time and complexity required to open these accounts in-branch. Please contact your Narmi Relationship Manager to enable this feature in Consumer Staff-Led Account Opening. Note: Representative payee accounts are currently only available on the Symitar core.
Functionality for opening representative payee accounts includes:
The ability to collect PII (personally identifiable information) for both the representative payee and the owner
Individuals can be designated by their appropriate roles
Support for document collection
Information is passed through Alloy KYC for validation
Please contact your Narmi Relationship Manager to enable representative payee accounts in Consumer Staff-Led Account Opening.
Representative Payee Accounts in Narmi
To open a representative payee account:
From the Narmi Command sidebar, select Account opening > Applications, and then select New application.
If your institution has consumer and business staff-led enabled, choose Consumer on the dialog that appears.
Select Representative payee for the type of account.
For detailed instructions on completing each section, go to Consumer Staff Led Account Opening for New Users or Consumer Staff Led Account Opening for Existing Users.
For specialty accounts, there is an Applicant information section. Select Finish next to the applicant’s name.
A side panel appears, allowing you to select a Role—either Representative Payee (the person authorized to manage benefits on behalf of another) or Owner (the beneficiary receiving benefits and the legal owner of the funds in the account). You will have the opportunity to add another role after completing the first one.
Select Save.
After you assign the first role (e.g., Representative Payee), the system will allow you to assign the second role (e.g., Owner).
Select Add a representative payee/owner to open a side panel and enter that person’s information. Only one representative payee and one owner can be added.
Select Save.
Run KYC and complete the application’s other sections as needed.
Your institution can configure which roles in representative payee accounts are ineligible for debit card issuance. This ensures compliance with account access restrictions for different fiduciary roles. To configure this, please contact your Narmi Relationship Manager.
Once the account is opened, the primary applicant receives an email notification. Users can view the account in Narmi Banking via Accounts. For information on accessing accounts, go to Navigating to the Accounts Page.
Staff can view the application details in Narmi Command. To open the application view, go to Account opening > Applications > select an application.
