IBKR joint account

Investing / Brokers
1

Hi all,

I would like to open a joint IBKR account for my wife and me. It will hold all assets purchased (from my salary) since start of our marriage.

IBKR allows to choose 3 different options for joint accounts: tenants in common, community property, joint tenants with right of survivorship.

I would like to choose one that we own the assets in common and in the case of death by either of us, the respective testament applies to deceased’s 50% share.

For those who opened a joint account, which option did you select and why? Does it even matter for non-US citizens?

Many thanks,
sunny

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In our case we chose joint tenancy with right of survivorship for our joint IBKR account. Main reason was simplicity (no need to figure out who should be recipient), considering that we share the FIRE goal and the money we’re investing in that account is earmarked for that.

I guess our choice would differ if any of us had descendants that the other wasn’t tied to (e.g. children from previous relationship) since we would certainly want to ensure they got a fair share. For any common descendants we trust each other to do the “right thing”, although we haven’t come up with a strict definition.

In practice, except if dealing with a premature and unforeseen death, we would probably empty and close the account in advance to avoid the paperwork and potential complications of using a foreign broker and having foreign positions. Easy to say now, not something any of us hopes to face :grimacing:

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Hi all, I’m resuming this post because I just came in the same situation, I’m married and just would like to make things available directly to my wife in case of death, because at the moment the IBKR account is on my name only.
I’m thinking to select the tenants in common, because it looks like is the one that gives us same property on the whole stash, and based of my understanding, in case of death the survivor is the one that will simply get everything, but is my assumption true?
Or brother/sisters, parents, will be implied?

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I’m in the same situation (married with account at IBKR in my name only).

I named my wife as trusted contact person for the account, so that IBKR already has the name and other contact information.
As I could read in IBKR help, a single-name account cannot be converted to a joint account. The joint account must be created from scratch, and then all positions transferred. I haven’t yet decided to embark on this.

Rights (and splitting) in case of death of the account holder depend on the inheritance laws and on the specific situation (wedding contract, will, …). Normally, the surviving spouse (and children if any) are inheriting, the parents and siblings are not, but this can be modified to some extent in a will.

Another thread of interest is Interactive brokers in case of death

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Interesting solution, what I think changes is that in case of joint account with tenants in common, 50% is already of the survivor, the other 50% if there is no will is split following these rules:

while in your setup I think the 100% would be split using the same rules, so others than your wife will get more.
I did the move to the joint account this morning, it was really easy and I think I’ll be happy like that, in case of death it will be treated just like shared bank accounts, shared real estates,…

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Note that accounts in one name only are considered as co-owned by both spouses, if the assets were accumulated after the wedding date and the marital regime is the standard ‹participation in acquired property›.
See Marriage in Switzerland: economic consequences

That is the case for my account at IBKR; access in case of death would be easier with a joint account, but it would not change ownership and inheritance.

Still, thanks for confirming that the process to transfer assets to the joint account was easy and smooth.

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