[WSBAPT] Joint Tenancy v JTROS

[Joshua McKarcher]

I love and highly commend to every practicing lawyer this set of provisions: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=64.28&full=true.

Note carefully that certain of these refer to not just real property but to personal property.

I quite literally re-read them every now and again merely to remind myself that no matter how complicated others (such as financial institutions or redundant acronyms like JTWROS) make these issues, JTs have survivorship without the redundant (if "communicative") phrase "with right of survivorship".

And then recently the Idaho Court of Appeals had occasion to clarify effectively these same points in a case in which a party argued a joint tenant had no survivorship without the four quoted words above. (It is a smart opinion, even if some of my fellow Idaho lawyers have twisted themselves in circles misreading the court to have said the common law is entirely irrelevant, when the court said no such thing. Rather the court said, as perhaps this RCW does, that the statute (of course) controls, including where it derogates the common law, but that where the statute is silent, the common law may well "fill the gap" and provide the answer. A perfectly unexceptional proposition to my mind.)

I hope this helps. Best, Josh
________________________________
From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> on behalf of Mark Anderson <marka at mbaesq.com>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2025 2:19 PM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Joint Tenancy v JTROS


Dear All:

Husband and Wife own an investment account identified as " Husband & Wife JT TEN."  Is there any distinction to be made between this and " Husband & Wife JTROS”?  In other words, does a joint tenancy always result in a right of survivorship?

Thanks.

Mark B. Anderson
ANDERSON LAW FIRM PLLC
821 Dock Street, Suite 209, PMB 4-12
Tacoma, Washington 98402
+1 253-327-1750
+1 253-327-1751 (fax)
marka at mbaesq.com<mailto:marka at mbaesq.com>
www.mbaesq.com<http://www.mbaesq.com/>

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