Joint tenancies with rights of survivorship can be established when two or more persons title bank accounts and other assets in their multiple names with the intent to have ownership pass directly to the surviving named owners when one dies. A “tenancy by the entireties” is much the same but involves only married persons. These forms of joint ownership can avoid probate of the account or other asset when an owner dies. While this can be very efficient in some cases, use of joint ownership can be fraught with problems at death and cause more problems than it solves.
Among other unforeseen problems, indiscriminate use of joint ownership can cause an increase in estate taxes over the joint lives of married persons, force double probates in the event of simultaneous deaths, create unfairness as to who pays for funeral expenses and claims against the decedent, raise undesired exposure during life to the debts of co-owners, and cause a shortage of funds for payment of estate taxes which can cause litigation with the taxing authorities.