Funds transfer question

I'm a stake clerk and have been asked a question by one of our bishops. He has a young lady who returned early from her mission. Her parents had paid quite a bit ahead and that money is just sitting in her account. The bishop says he would like, if possible, to use those funds to pay for counseling services for her. I know the money will not be refunded to the parents. Just want to know if there is some legal (in the church sense) workaround to accomplish what the bishop would like to see happen. Thanks.

There is no direct way to use that money for counseling. If the bishop feels it's needed and appropriate he can use fast offerings for counseling but you can't spend missionary funds for anything directly (only SLC is allowed to charge those funds) and you can't transfer missionary funds to a non-missionary fund account.

It may be allowed to go back to the original donations and re-categorize some of them to tithing instead of missionary fund. Whether or not this is allowed has changed in the past so it's best to call the global service department and check with them first. If so, that may free up family funds to provide for counseling.

While there may be workarounds, the official answer is likely to be found in General Handbook 34.4.9 - Contributions Not to Be Refunded.

For this reason, I would suggest discouraging parents of future missionaries from getting too far ahead in their payments.

rjamesh77 wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:18 am The bishop says he would like, if possible, to use those funds to pay for counseling services for her. I know the money will not be refunded to the parents.

It would probably be best if the Ward Missionary funds assigned to that missionary were transferred to the top-level Ward Missionary account and used as needed for other missionaries. If the family is hoping that those funds be made available for counseling, the bishop might let the family know that he will take care of her counseling as needed for the time being and that the family does not need to worry about the source of those funds. All donations to the Church are used at the discretion of the Church.

In the meantime, the bishop is still able to use Fast Offering funds for the counseling expenses. There is no "balancing" of Fast Offering funds. As the bishop uses them the ward is reimbursed by the Church. So what the bishop wishes to do is still possible within current Church guidelines without needing to transfer any funds.

In a different thread I had asked if forum members were aware how common it might be for families to donate many months ahead to missionary accounts, and now this thread shows another case where it happened. Sometimes families are aware there are potential issues with their missionary which might cause them to come home early, but other times it's truly unexpected. And it's always unfortunate when the family/Bishop finds out they cannot utilize those donated funds for other worthy purposes beyond missionary service. Just another reminder to have Bishops/clerks keep good tabs on missionary accounts, and to maintain good communications with missionaries and their families regarding funds.