QUESTION
am I putting myself at risk when having a brokerage acct with my son -as joint tenants with rights of survivorship
Asked on Apr 29th, 2021 on Asset Protection - Wisconsin
More details to this question:
I have a custodial acct for my son-he is turning 21 soon-I have to decide if the brokerage acct should be just in his name or joint tenants-he is not a responsible person so I expect he will waste the money-Im not trying to control that- I want to make sure that he cant do something that would endanger my other assets outside this account. Someone told me if joint tenants-he could lose more than just this account-in other words cost me more than just the money in this acct-just wanted to know if I have any risk other than the money in this one brokerage acct which came from a custodial acct
1 ANSWER
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In short, no. Your son will only have control over the account that he has ownership in. If there is a judgment against him, the holder could seize that account to pay it, but not any of your other accounts, IF you are not liable on the judgement. However, it can work the other way if you are a joint owner. For example, the account would be considered an asset of yours so if you owed someone money and they received a judgment for it, they could seize your son's account to pay the judgment.
Answered on May 03rd, 2021 at 8:17 AM