All joint bank accounts are considered 50% owned by each joint holder.Upon death of 1st account holder the remaining account holder is considered the owner of all funds. Unless there is a POD designation. Since the account is a joint account (and not held in the name of a trust) the POD (Pay On Death) designation - beneficiary - should have been done when account was opened. If not, can be done at any time as long as account holders are competent. With no POD joint owner is assumed to own all monies at death of 1st joint account holder. You can also have multiple beneficiaries - i.e. 1/2 to estate of Mom and 1/2 to remaining account holder - then the part going to estate would be governed by Mom's will. Otherwise, bank accounts POD designation (or lack of) will govern who gets monies in that account. And overrides any designation in her will. Good time to review all bank, investment, life insurance, etc. to make any needed updates and be sure beneficiaries are what Mom intends.
This can actually be a way of avoiding probate in estate planning. My parents just went thru the process of setting up a family trust. My mother did not want to do this, my dad did. After 69 years of marriage, she didn't want to "co-mingle" her money and his!! So the attorney told her if the accounts were joint with me (I'm an only child.) the money would go directly to me upon her death, no probate or anything!
Joint accounts with survivorship go to the survivor. Otherwise they can be worded to go back to the estate. The survivor is the other joint holder. Many elderly people do not realize when they put a child on a checking account, it is the child's when they die unless specified. That leaves the other children with nothing from this account.
For instance, my mother has between 40 and 80 thousand in one checking account. She put my brother on it as a joint holder. As far as I know he has rights of survivorship. It is his money. She assures me he will "share" with me. I am not so sure but nothing I can do about it. He is on this account after all to pay her bills when needed. To quote her, "that is the way I want it."
Now if he keeps the money, it will ruin what is left of a shabby relationship anyway. I would never do that to him. But time will tell. So if you want to take the money after your Mom's death, you probably can but think about the damage this may do to your relationships. It is not worth it.
Depends on how the accounts are set up. Some accounts have instructions for the funds to go back to the estate, many do not. In most cases the money is owned by the joint holders, but if you have siblings there could be some very unhappy people. You need to give more information. My brother is jointly on my mother's accounts with the orders to divide it with me. We will see if that happens. As she has it now, it it totally his upon her death.
I would think that it depends-on how the account was set up in the beginning, how the legal signatures are noted on the cd, how the legal documents will define if you get the cd cash out, etc. should something happen to your mom. I recommend you speak with a legal representative who can give you the correct answers to your questions. My brother would have been in a similar situation with the home he has lived in all of his life, with my mother, when she had a change in condition recently. Upon advocating for my brother and my mother, my mother several years ago got a change in her ownership deed to her home, placing herself and my brother as joint tenents on the deed. This is just one way she took care of ensuring my brother had a home after she was recently placed in a health care long term facility. She also has a power of attorney for both health and finanical decisions. There are little things we cannot reasonably understand that a legal represtative can help us interpret what is the best in this situation. Good luck-hope things work best for you and your mom-Linda
madge & cmagnum, yes being an "only" eliminates many of those problems, but it also means you are the sole responsible person when it comes to care and difficult decisions - a blessing & a curse. Thank god, I have a supportive husband & kids who help with these things!
Again, thank you for your answer. There was and is never an option, the money will be divided equally amongst the children, that was Mom and Dads wishes. We require nothing more as it was our honor and duty to care for them. We just wanted to make sure we could take care of her final expenses. Splitting the money will do nothing in healing wounds, but it will allow us to walk away with our integrity. :)
cdeh61, the problem is when there are other children and the joint holder is not into sharing. My mother has a good bit of money and I hope my brother is honest, he always seems to be. But who wants to "hope" their siblings will share. You parents making a trust is the smart thing to do. you are lucky. :)
This is a mess and the executors may well not like this at all, but since you and you husband were made full owners of those accounts with right of survivorship, it is all yours.
The bank is not required to create an account called the estate of ___ because now there is not estate with the money now being yours from the joint ownership. Thus, there is nothing for the executors of the will left to execute and your husband and you can legally pay her remaining bills from those accounts that now are yours. You can even still use the checks if they have her name and his name or your name in addition on them. If not the bank will need a copy of the death certificate to order you new checks. They need a copy of the death certificate anyway to process the taking of her name off of the accounts and leaving the accounts in ya'lls names.
Now for the messy part.
Legally, because of the joint ownership with right of survivorship, it is now yours. It all depends on how you want to handle this and how you want your relationships with the rest of the family to go.
1. Just keep it as it is and there will be a lot of hurt feelings, threats of law suits which have no basis in fact but could drag out and be expensive.
2. Be very gracious and divide the remaining money equally among the siblings. That would likely keep relationships healthier and on an even kneel. It may be painful or difficult to do since you two have done the caregiving because you lived near, but it is up to you to choose if you want to take the gracious high road or want to take purely the legal road. I can see where this would possibly be a very difficult choice to make.
These are the only two choices that I see that you have. It sounds like you are leaning toward the more gracious choice in resolving this. In the long run, that should work better for everyone.
I wish you the best with whichever choice you chose.
Since the account is a joint account (and not held in the name of a trust) the POD (Pay On Death) designation - beneficiary - should have been done when account was opened. If not, can be done at any time as long as account holders are competent.
With no POD joint owner is assumed to own all monies at death of 1st joint account holder.
You can also have multiple beneficiaries - i.e. 1/2 to estate of Mom and 1/2 to remaining account holder - then the part going to estate would be governed by Mom's will. Otherwise, bank accounts POD designation (or lack of) will govern who gets monies in that account. And overrides any designation in her will.
Good time to review all bank, investment, life insurance, etc. to make any needed updates and be sure beneficiaries are what Mom intends.
For instance, my mother has between 40 and 80 thousand in one checking account. She put my brother on it as a joint holder. As far as I know he has rights of survivorship. It is his money. She assures me he will "share" with me. I am not so sure but nothing I can do about it. He is on this account after all to pay her bills when needed. To quote her, "that is the way I want it."
Now if he keeps the money, it will ruin what is left of a shabby relationship anyway. I would never do that to him. But time will tell. So if you want to take the money after your Mom's death, you probably can but think about the damage this may do to your relationships. It is not worth it.
This is a mess and the executors may well not like this at all, but since you and you husband were made full owners of those accounts with right of survivorship, it is all yours.
The bank is not required to create an account called the estate of ___ because now there is not estate with the money now being yours from the joint ownership. Thus, there is nothing for the executors of the will left to execute and your husband and you can legally pay her remaining bills from those accounts that now are yours. You can even still use the checks if they have her name and his name or your name in addition on them. If not the bank will need a copy of the death certificate to order you new checks. They need a copy of the death certificate anyway to process the taking of her name off of the accounts and leaving the accounts in ya'lls names.
Now for the messy part.
Legally, because of the joint ownership with right of survivorship, it is now yours. It all depends on how you want to handle this and how you want your relationships with the rest of the family to go.
1. Just keep it as it is and there will be a lot of hurt feelings, threats of law suits which have no basis in fact but could drag out and be expensive.
2. Be very gracious and divide the remaining money equally among the siblings. That would likely keep relationships healthier and on an even kneel. It may be painful or difficult to do since you two have done the caregiving because you lived near, but it is up to you to choose if you want to take the gracious high road or want to take purely the legal road. I can see where this would possibly be a very difficult choice to make.
These are the only two choices that I see that you have. It sounds like you are leaning toward the more gracious choice in resolving this. In the long run, that should work better for everyone.
I wish you the best with whichever choice you chose.
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