Mike,
There are several other details that you need to consider before opening up an account.
If you open up the account with a "Co-account holder" then that person has equal rights to the account. Equal rights would include trading, shorting, closing the account, loans, margins, etc... This is a nice feature where you can trust your "Co-account holder", but dangerous if you and your "Co-account holder" don't see eye-to-eye on investment strategies or individual equity investments.
If you open the account with JTWROS (Joint Tenancy With Rights of Survivorship), there are certain tax advantages to your surviving spouse (in the event of your death) and certain advantages should you become incapacitated. However, as with a "Co-account Holder", your spouse would have equal rights within the account. See the responses from the other SI folks.
One thing you haven't addressed is the size of your account. I'm not prying and you shouldn't post it for public view, but if your estate will (eventually) exceed $600,000(?) (soon to be $1.2M?) then the way to go currently is to set up a trust for yourself and your spouse. You'll likely need to consult with a lawyer to do this. Costs for a trust run from about $750 on the low side to about $2000 on the high side, depending on how complicated the trust provisions are. When you open the brokerage account, you then open it in the name of the trust. You can spell out within the trust exactly what rights you and the co-trustee would have in any brokerage accounts. And you can set up provisions (for example, Power of Attorney) should you become incapacitated. If you decide that you'll never need a trust, then at least consult a lawyer for a simple will. Whatever you do, don't assume that the current laws regarding your estate or your investments will always remain the same. The few dollars you spend on an attorney now will be returned 100 times over in peace of mind.
Hope this hasn't confused you too much.
KJC |
