Is it better to make accounts joint or have beneficiaries? Which would pay more taxes?

Question

Is it better to make accounts joint or have beneficiaries? Which would pay more taxes?

Answer

That's not really the question.

Joint bank accounts are a great way to have a non-probate asset. But there are some other considerations - does any of the joint account holders get Social Security? Does one of the other joint account holders owe debts? If so, then having a joint account may not be the way to go.

Other than the person who now owns the account, how many beneficiaries would there be? Does the person who owns the account want to essentially make a gift of the account to one person?

Example: A has a bank account. A adds her daughter, B, to the account. A has 4 kids including B (B, C, D & E).

When A dies, all of the money in the account will go to B and C, D & E will not be entitled to the money. Is this what A wants? Also, B is not obligated to use any money inherited from A for any of A's final expenses - burial/funeral etc. Again, is this what A wants?

What other assets besides a bank account does A have? How many children/beneficiaries does A have? How does A want to leave her estate? Is A married at all?

I don't expect you to answer these questions. However, I pose them to make you realize that what you ask is not so simple a question and that there are many other factors which have to be considered other than simple taxation. PA has an inheritance tax which applies to all transfers of property made within a year of death and tax rates vary depending on the relationship of the beneficiary to the deceased. While I get that nobody likes paying taxes, the taxes will be a small part of the picture unless there is hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in the bank (in which case - I would wonder why! A bank is not the best place to stash vast sums of wealth). So adding someone to an account and then having the primary account holder die may not necessarily be a tax avoidance technique.

A person needs to sit down with an experienced estate planning attorney to discuss and review all of their assets and goals and then come up with a plan for handling the estate and seeing to it that there is an orderly transfer of assets.