5. Learn about joint bank accounts

Two or more people can be listed as joint owners of a bank account. In that case, what happens to your share when you die depends on how the account was set up and what you want.

You can decide if you want your share to go to your or to the other account owner. If it goes directly to the other account owner, it does not become part of your estate. And it's also not included when calculating fees.

Make sure you write down what you want to happen to your share if you die before the other owner. You can do this in:

the bank papers when you set up the account,
your will, or
another document.

Risks to consider

There can be some risks when you own bank accounts jointly. For example, any of the joint account holders can deposit and withdraw money from the account at any time, even when you're alive. They do not have to tell you or get your permission before taking money out of the account.

And like , bank accounts and investments held jointly by a parent and their adult child are assumed to be held in a “resulting trust”.

This means that the person who was added as a joint owner must prove that the bank account or investment was a gift if they want to keep it. Otherwise, the asset will belong to the estate of the person who died, and not the joint account holder.