If you intend to leave your children equal shares of your estate, do not forget to consider any money or property held jointly with a child. If you have recently added a child to a bank account, own property jointly with one of your children, or have set up a payable-on-death account with a child as the beneficiary, you might want to revise your estate documents.
Here’s why: Property in a joint account passes outside of your estate. If you add a child to one of your bank accounts, perhaps as a convenience because the child is helping to manage your finances, the account will pass to that child alone when you die. This is true for any property held in joint tenancy, or any property in a payable-on-death account.
If your estate documents say that your estate will be divided equally between your children, then only your other property will be divided equally between them. The child named on the joint account is the owner and will receive all that money or property by himself or herself.
If you do not intend for that child to receive a larger share of your estate, you can add a provision in your estate planning documents stating that any property passing to a beneficiary through joint ownership will be treated as an advance on that beneficiary’s share. In that way, all your children will be treated equally.
Ms. MacDonald’s practice is limited to Estate Planning, Probate, Conservatorships, Elder Law and Trust Administration. Ms. MacDonald maintains her practice in the Santa Clarita Valley at 25115 Avenue Stanford, Suite B-124 in Valencia, California 91355. She can be reached at 661-294-6464.