My wife and I are semi-retired and traveling more these days, and after a recent failed approach and go-around while flying to Europe I started wondering how my adult son and his siblings (all in their 20s and just starting careers or entering grad school) would handle things if we both died suddenly. Both my wife and my brother learned that although they each had POA and authorized access to a parent’s bank and brokerage accounts, upon death of the parent they actually could not access those funds to pay bills as they arose. The vast majority of our portfolio is held at Fidelity. I was planning to open a joint CMA account for my wife and me, and I began thinking perhaps I should open a second joint CMA designating our oldest child (co-trustee of our testamentary trust) as POD/TOD beneficiary with sufficient funds in SPAXX and FDLXX so upon our deaths he can have money to cover any immediate expense. I was hoping he could avoid the surprise that my wife and brother had when they tried to access money in accounts that they had been managing as if they were joint accounts, but in reality were not. I was hoping that I could get some advice about whether this was a reasonable approach, or there were downsides I failed to consider. Thanks
McGarrett
McGarrett
Statistics: Posted by mcgarrett — Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:09 am — Replies 0 — Views 28