Managing Money for Multiple Beneficiaries as a Representative Payee
- Purple
- Aug 20
- 2 min read
Being a representative payee for one person is a big responsibility. But for parents, caregivers, or organizations managing benefits for multiple people, things can quickly get overwhelming.
This article will cover:
Who typically manages multiple beneficiary accounts
SSA rules about separate funds
Why traditional banking makes this hard
What an ideal system looks like
How Purple simplifies it all
Whether you’re a family with two kids on SSI or a professional fiduciary, this guide is for you.
1. Who Manages Multiple Beneficiaries?
You might be a:
Parent managing benefits for more than one child
Sibling or adult child managing benefits for two or more family members
Legal guardian with multiple clients
Care organization or nonprofit serving a group of residents
In all of these cases, you’re responsible for keeping each person’s money separate and protected—both legally and practically.
2. SSA Rules: Keep Funds Separate
The Social Security Administration is clear: if you manage funds for more than one beneficiary, you must not mix their money.
That means:
Each person should have their own account or sub-account
You must be able to show how much money belongs to each person
Every transaction must be documented clearly and individually
For organizations, this often means opening a collective account approved by SSA, with precise tracking of each beneficiary’s balance.
Failure to follow these rules can lead to compliance issues—or worse, loss of payee status.
3. Why Traditional Banking Makes It Difficult
Most banks weren’t built for representative payees—especially those managing more than one person’s benefits.
Common challenges include:
Needing to visit a branch to open each account
Being unable to label or organize accounts by beneficiary
Manually tracking transactions in spreadsheets
Limited visibility across accounts in one place
No easy way to export reports or documentation
For many families or small organizations, that leads to messy bookkeeping, accidental overspending, or avoidable compliance headaches.
4. What an Ideal System Looks Like
Managing multiple beneficiaries should be:
Organized: Each person’s funds tracked in their own account
Accessible: View balances, transactions, and notes in real time
Automated: Simple budgeting tools and alerts
Compliant: Easy to generate SSA-friendly records
Secure: No mixing of funds, no risk of misallocation
That’s where Purple comes in.
5. How Purple Makes Multi-Beneficiary Management Simple
Purple was built to make life easier for people managing benefits for others—especially more than one.
With Purple, you can:
Open multiple accounts, each tied to a different beneficiary
Track balances, deposits, and spending for each person
Add notes or receipts to any transaction
Store documents like SSA letters or guardianship papers
Export records when needed for audits or reports
Whether you’re managing benefits for two siblings or twenty clients, everything stays in one secure place—organized, compliant, and easy to use.