[teraflop]

I'm curious about how the legalities of this work.

If you create a TreasuryDirect account using my SSN, do you then require a durable power of attorney to manage it on my behalf, as laid out in 31 CFR § 363.33? Or are you simply logging in using "my" credentials and performing actions as if you were me? If the latter, are you at all worried about the Treasury Department cracking down on this?

[paxys]

You don't need power of attorney to act on someone's behalf with their explicit permission and instruction. It may be against TreasuryDirect's terms of service (I have no idea, I haven't read them), but there's nothing specifically illegal about this.

[dpifke]

Interestingly, TreasuryDirect's terms of service are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/31/part-363/subpart-B

From a brief reading, having a third party access your TreasuryDirect account does seem problematic:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/31/363.22

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/31/363.17

[adammoelis]

We do the latter. Performing actions as if we were you. I am not worried given that.

[codingdave]

Well, if the guy selling it isn't worried, we're in the clear, right everyone? /s

I liked the description of the product when I first read it. I really did. But I'm losing confidence the more OP keeps pushing in the comments.

This might be a decent product, but I'm wary of someone who is pushing hard to let them create investment accounts on other platforms on our behalf. It just feels like the kind of thing that when it blows up in the future, hindsight will say, "Why did you let someone do that in the first place?"

[klyrs]

You have sold me on I Bonds as a financial product, but you'll never touch my money. Hire a lawyer.

[UncleMeat]

> I am not worried given that.

YOLO is definitely an interesting approach for a financial company. Didn't people shit all over Plaid for taking this approach? Training people to give their financial credentials to 3rd parties is not the best.

[notch656a]

Hey, cut him some slack, he did say he was in the business of "making saving exciting." The risk of handing over your financial credentials is exciting because you never really know what may happen!

[UncleMeat]

I also find the use of ibonds funny for a service that ostensibly exists to encourage people to invest. Pointing people at a vehicle that currently (and for the foreseeable future) offers zero real growth by definition isn't going to make the world into successful investors.

[tevon]

If I were him, I'd be pretty stoked about the Plaid comparison.

Keep it up! You're acting for the good of the user, YOLO it.