{"id":2100,"date":"2011-05-29T04:35:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T11:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=2100"},"modified":"2011-10-02T13:14:45","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T20:14:45","slug":"joint-ownership-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/joint-ownership-pitfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Downside to Joint Account Ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a Michigan estate planning attorney<\/a>, I regularly see families that own much (if not all) of their property jointly.\u00a0 Joint tenancy involves both (or multiple) people having full ownership of the asset.\u00a0 I see it most commonly with homes, bank accounts and non-retirement investment accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now don’t get me wrong, there are situations where owning something jointly is just fine.\u00a0 However, I regularly see it as a replacement for proper estate planning (for example, putting children on your accounts as joint owners).\u00a0 That is a very bad thing.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 We’ll cover that in a second, but first lets think about why people own property jointly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people consider it easy.\u00a0 Well, I can’t argue with that.\u00a0 It is easy.\u00a0 You just put the names of all the owners on the document(s) proving ownership.\u00a0 Some consider it a gesture of love.\u00a0 After all, the idea of jointly owning something seems to have a “love” or “trust” connotation.\u00a0 “I love you enough that I’m giving us both full right to this.”\u00a0 Very common in a marriage (traditional or otherwise).\u00a0 Finally, some people know that jointly owned property bypasses the probate court process when the first joint owner dies.\u00a0 That’s true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet each of those “pluses” comes with a whole host of “minuses.”\u00a0 Here’s a look at some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n