Your Estate Matters

Warning! Dangers of Joint Tenancy Ownership. Many clients tell me that they've retitled their assets, especially those intended to pass according to the terms of their living trust, in the name of one or more of their children. Instead of leaving the titles in the name of their trust, they've effectively removed those assets from the trust and titled them jointly with someone else. The effect of this is to cause the asset to pass directly to the surviving joint owner and not to the beneficiaries of their trust. It is important that no title be changed to someone else as a joint owner with you unless you understand this completely, and intend that the asset pass only to the surviving owner. This is one reason why I recommend an annual review to make sure these kinds of inadvertent mistakes don't occur.