1 An account owner’s will or trust will not prevent this presumption from arising, and the financial institution has no duty to inform the account owner of this presumption. The inclusion of the word “or” between the names as opposed to “and” makes no difference in whether the presumption arises. The statute does not provide any explicit words that are required for this presumption to arise, just two or more owners. However, under Florida Statute Section 655.79, unless expressly stated otherwise in the contract, agreement or signature card executed in connection with the relevant account, any account that is titled in the names of two or more persons creates a presumption that all ownership rights in the account automatically pass to the surviving owners upon the death of any owner. This may be because the owner already has a last will and testament or a testamentary trust that dictates how his/her assets will pass after death. The original account owner may not give much thought to survivorship rights to the account when he/she adds an individual’s name to the account. Setting up an account this way may be convenient for the original account owner during his/her life, but that convenience can lead to some very inconvenient situations after the original owner’s death-often including litigation between the original owner’s heirs to determine the survivorship rights in these joint accounts. This is especially common if a child is already assisting an elderly or disabled parent with managing their bank accounts and with paying bills. The person added to the account is usually the original owner’s child, caregiver, spouse, or other trusted individual. A typical reason that an individual will choose to add someone to a bank accounts is so that the added person can have access to the funds for the original owner’s benefit.
It is very common for an owner of a bank account to “add” someone to his/her account for personal convenience.
0 kommentar(er)
