Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Estate planning question
View Single Post
 
Old 03-27-2025, 01:10 PM
Rainger99 Rainger99 is offline
Sage
Join Date: Oct 2021
Posts: 2,806
Thanks: 1
Thanked 2,114 Times in 992 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecuadog View Post
Small point... Vanguard does not allow beneficiary designation (TOD) on joint accounts. The last surviving account owner must take care of the TOD stuff.
You are correct. At the present time, we have a joint account. I called vanguard about adding secondary beneficiaries and they said that I could not do it. I am in the process of setting up an individual account and transferring all the money from the joint account into the individual account. At that time I can put my wife as the primary beneficiary and add secondary beneficiaries.

If we kept the joint account and we both were killed in a car accident, the money would have to go to probate! No way to avoid it!

Does anyone know the reason why vanguard has this policy?

And it is not a small point! It could cost someone thousands of dollars if the vanguard account had to go through probate!