Does it Avoid Probate to Have Accounts in Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship?

Video Transcript

"The only good thing about having an account with rights of survivorship, or sometimes called joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, and sometimes just called joint with rights of survivorship--and you're going to see it designated as ROS, JTWROS, or just sometimes JROS. All it means is when somebody dies, all that money goes directly to whoever else is on that account. It may be a piece of real estate that's owned in joint tenant. They get all of it. The good thing is it doesn't go through probate, because the law says if you own property that way, it doesn't go through probate, it just goes direct to that person. That person can show up at the title company, if they're buying the real estate, or trying to sell it, they'll put a deed in their name. They can go to the bank, the financial institution, they'll change that account into the name of that person. The problem is that you may have a will or a trust that says something completely different. It may say I want the money to go to different people in equal shares. It may say I don't want my children to get it until they're a certain age. It may be that frankly this is just a friend. That friend, that person, whoever is on that account gets all the money when you pass away, and is under absolutely no legal obligation to give it to anybody else but themselves."