Don wrote:
> For someone with only one or maybe two heirs, a simple solution is to
> have everything held jointly (JTWROS). My wife and I hold every last
> account jointly, so the survivor will have immediate access to
> everything. No probate, no trust.
A little too simplistic -- what if you both die at the same time? (auto
accident, for example).
In the case of spouses, often the assets belong to both anyway, either
legally or ethically, so JTWROS makes sense. But don't depend on JTWROS
for children or other descendants, if there is more than one and you
want the money split according to your wishes. It will never work
out... unless your kids are space aliens and therefore exempt from the
normal inter-sibling issues that inevitably arise in these situations.
As previously mentioned, living trusts can also serve when the trustor
is not dead but merely incapacitated.
-Mark Bole
--------------------------------------
Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators
strive
to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting
guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to
which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM
THE
MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on
the
Newsgroup.
|
