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TX Estate Planners: Need Your Help inre Account Titles

Posted on 1/4/21 at 3:59 pm
Posted by Blue Horseshoe
Member since Dec 2014
57 posts
Posted on 1/4/21 at 3:59 pm
I'm trying to open a brokerage account for my wife & I that ultimately avoids probate and receives a 100% step-up in cost basis at the time of death.

TD Ameritrade has suggested that I open one of the following: Joint Tenants (with Rights of Survivorship), or a Community Property account.

My understanding is that a Joint Tenant account avoids probate, but only 50% of the assets experience a step-up in cost basis at the time of death. A Community Property account would receive a 100% step-up in cost basis at the time of death, but 50% of the account would wind up in the deceased's estate. Is it possible to avoid that by attaching a Survivorship agreement to the account, or should I subject the account to probate and have my will designate her as the beneficiary?

Bigger picture, does account titling even really matter in a community property state? Aren't all assets (excluding gifts and inheritance) accumulated after the date of marriage considered community property?

TIA
Posted by LSUFanHouston
NOLA
Member since Jul 2009
40200 posts
Posted on 1/4/21 at 11:12 pm to
Why do you want to avoid probate?

quote:

Bigger picture, does account titling even really matter in a community property state? Aren't all assets (excluding gifts and inheritance) accumulated after the date of marriage considered community property?


Absent a separate property agreement, yes, it's community property.
Posted by cadillacattack
the ATL
Member since May 2020
9557 posts
Posted on 1/5/21 at 6:31 am to
reminds me of a joke ...

Dave was a single guy, living at home with his father, and working in the family business. He knew that he would inherit a fortune once his sickly father died.

Dave wanted two things:
• to learn how to invest his inheritance and,
• to find a wife to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away

"I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit 20 million dollars."

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card.

Two weeks later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at estate planning than men...
Posted by LSUFanHouston
NOLA
Member since Jul 2009
40200 posts
Posted on 1/5/21 at 1:45 pm to
quote:

Two weeks later, she became his stepmother.



Hadn't heard that joke before... I laughed
Posted by Blue Horseshoe
Member since Dec 2014
57 posts
Posted on 1/5/21 at 3:08 pm to
quote:

Why do you want to avoid probate?


I want to ensure that my wife would have immediate access to our investments in the event of my death. I don't need things to get tied up in court, just so a judge can tell her what's hers is hers.

quote:

Absent a separate property agreement, yes, it's community property.


So I should title the account as community property or am I better off with JTWROS?
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