Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 1:34 PM

Downsides of Joint Bank Accounts

With a joint account, two people (not necessarily spouses) are co-owners of a bank account, and each has the power to make withdrawals without the other's consent. That's one of the risks mentioned in this Bankrate article. Other risks mentioned are right of survivorship, tax implications and debt responsibility.

KenBDG5,147 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 117,067

1. Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 5:39 PM

There are benefits and pitfalls for any kind of registered ownership of bank accounts. The big benefit of joint ownership is that if one member of that account has a heart attack and dies instantly or is killed in a car crash, the other member has immediate access without any red tape. As long as all members in the account are financially responsible and are "tied together" financially, registering accounts in other forms can be more paper intensive and inflaxible.

Anonymous963 posts since
May 9, 2010
Rep Points: 1,953