Do Joint Accounts With Rights of Survivorship Override a Will?

If you are married, it is more than likely that you own a joint savings or checking account with your spouse. If you have a child, you may set up a joint money market account. And if you have a business partner, you may be included in a joint brokerage account. Whatever the case may be, at the time of your unfortunate passing, you may want to ensure your portion of this account’s funds is distributed to your designated beneficiaries directly. However, this may be more complex if the right of survivorship is a legal concept at play. With that being said, please follow along to find out whether joint accounts with rights of survivorship override your will’s instructions and how a proficient Putnam County wills attorney at the Law Offices of Andres D. Gil, PLLC, can help you navigate these legal terms.

Do joint accounts with rights of survivorship override a will’s instructions?

First of all, if a right of survivorship applies to your joint account, this means that when you pass away, the surviving owner automatically becomes the sole owner of its funds. This is to say it bypasses the New York State probate process. Thus, the instructions you left behind in your Last Will and Testament document cannot redirect these funds or override these ownership rights at this time. If your joint account specifically has a payable on death or transfer on death beneficiary, this individual may only receive these funds after the surviving owner also passes away.

If you do not wish for things to go this way, you must make your joint account a tenants in common account instead. With this, at the time of your death, your shares may pass to your heirs as specified in your will document or New York State’s intestacy laws. This is to say that these funds will be subject to the probate process, and you should fully understand the implications of this before you proceed any further.

What other types of accounts have the power to override a will?

Even if you are the sole owner of certain accounts, you may be unable to override them with your will’s instructions. Namely, this applies to life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and annuities. This is because these accounts are owned and managed by separate financial entities, which require you to file a beneficiary designation form upon setup. Further, these accounts are not governed by the probate court upon your death. And so, the individual you appoint in a beneficiary designation form takes precedence over the individual you name in your will document.

If this is what you are currently up against, do not try to put up a fight without the legal assistance of a talented estate planning attorney in Putnam County from the Law Office of Andres D. Gil, PLLC. We urge you to retain our services as soon as possible.