My wife and I have a taxable brokerage account at Vanguard. It is a joint account and purposefully titled as tenants by the entirety for asset protection purposes. We now have two daughters and established a revocable trust. Our main priorities are preserving asset protection benefits of tenants by the entirety AND allowing the account to be placed into the trust so probate can be avoided in the event of our simultaneous deaths. Vanguard of course does not allow us to name the trust (or anyone) as a primary beneficiary or contingent beneficiary for a joint account, simply stating that the account will pass to the surviving joint account own in the event of the other's death. Works well if we die separately, but not if we die together in a car accident, for example.
My understanding is that opening a separate taxable account in the name of the trust and transferring assets in kind would negate the asset protection strategy of tenants by the entirety in the event one of us gets sued and judgement is above malpractice limits (both physicians). I fully acknowledge this probability is extremely remote, but it's not impossible. Any way to get the best of both worlds, or do we have to chose between asset protection vs benefits of trust?
My understanding is that opening a separate taxable account in the name of the trust and transferring assets in kind would negate the asset protection strategy of tenants by the entirety in the event one of us gets sued and judgement is above malpractice limits (both physicians). I fully acknowledge this probability is extremely remote, but it's not impossible. Any way to get the best of both worlds, or do we have to chose between asset protection vs benefits of trust?
Statistics: Posted by UroloJay — Thu May 09, 2024 8:09 pm — Replies 0 — Views 40