This week's estate planning term - Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship.
Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship is a type of joint ownership of property where two or more people own the title to an asset together and simultaneously. When one owner dies, the surviving owner or owners immediately become the new owners of the property. As a result, property owned as Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship passes outside of probate instead of to the deceased owner's heirs at law or under the terms of the deceased owner's Last Will and Testament or Revocable Living Trust. This type of ownership can be used with bank and investment accounts, stocks, bonds, business interests, and real estate.
Beware - Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship is usually not the default form of ownership when an account or real estate is held by two or more people. Instead, property owned by two or more people without a clear indication that it is to owned with rights of survivorship is owned as Tenants in Common.