<prompt> Human: My mom sent me a text asking for my babys SSN to add as a beneficiary to her 401k. Weve never talked about her estate planning and since this isnt infodiscussion topic Id want to text about I just told her thanks for thinking of my kid and we should talk later on about her plans. I believe my mom has good intentions but she is generally disorganized with finances, shes in another state, and no one around her is in a great financial situation. Overall I think these are risk factors and Im just not comfortable giving up control of his SSN to her. Since Im responsible to protect my baby, I feel like telling her I appreciate the thought but we need to make sure his SSN stays secure from hackers and data leaks so I think it should be fine to fill out her beneficiary forms to the best of her knowledge and leave the SSN portion blank. Maybe it would delay payment but I can deal with it later. I also want to ask her if she has considered working with a lawyer or estate planner on this. Is this the correct approach or would you do something differently? Just as a side note, I am sure this isnt a lot of money maybe a few thousand and Im not too worried about the possibility of him not getting the money. I know she wants to show that she cares about her grandchild and I appreciate that. Thanks!  <response>: There are plenty of legitimate reasons to need a childsgrandchilds SSN.Such as listing as beneficiaries, or opening accounts for college savings, etc.If you trust them, then go for it. You can always pull credit reports to make sure nothing illegal is going on trust but verify. As much as we would like to assume our data is private you may as well accept the fact that her SSN is, or will soon, be out there. Unless they have a history of screwing over family I would just give it to them. 