Probate Question

Do all JTWROS, TIC, Tenancy by the Entirely and TOD allow probate?

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Hi @A11 - I’m not sure what you mean by allow probate? Probate court is utilized to determine who or what inherits a deceased person’s assets. It only applies to assets left to a person’s estate.

If your question is what accounts may be involved in probate, only TIC (tenants in common) accounts typically involve this type of court. We cover this in the brokerage account types chapter:

TIC accounts provide specific ownership allotments to their owners. If one of the owners passes away, their allotment goes to their estate and is handled in probate court. For example, assume Jim owns 40% of a TIC account and Jada owns 60%. If Jada were to pass away, her 60% becomes property of her estate and is handled in probate court. Jim keeps his 40% and moves it to an individual account in his name.

When an account owner dies on a Joint WROS account, the surviving owner inherits the entire account:

Joint with rights of survivorship (WROS) accounts provide equal ownership rights to all owners. If one of the owners passes away, the remaining owners fully own the account. For example, assume John and Stacey own a joint WROS account together. If John passes away, Stacey now owns the entire account. As long as there’s a surviving owner on the account, joint WROS accounts avoid probate.

If no surviving owners remain on a WROS account, the assets become property of the last surviving owner’s estate (assuming no TOD). This is the one instance where a WROS account may be subject to probate.

Tenants by entirety (TBE) accounts are very much like a WROS account, but only for married couples. Pretty much works the same way otherwise.

Transfer on death (TOD) designations are simply beneficiary designations. If a person dies with a TOD account, their assets pass directly to the named beneficiaries without probate.

Hope this helps!

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