It feels unfair, but your heirs get a step up in basis so that no one pays capital gains on the money. I’ll bet the % they’ll pay in inheritance tax is less than the % you would have paid on CG.
Lawmakers may not like it either, but they’d have to increase taxes elsewhere to compensate for dropping the inheritance tax, if they do.
Maybe what lawmakers should do is allow siblings/parents to inherit tax-free if the deceased had no spouse or children?
I here this all the time from people who don’t understand Capitalism. Every citizen in the US has the right to buy stock and become wealthy—if they want to. It is a choice to make. If you choose not to participate in capitalism, then no one will force you to. But you may remain poor as a result. There is no type of government on Earth that makes people wealthy by printing money and handing it out free to them. Don’t expect others to stay poor when the path to wealth is available, clear, and easy.
no beneficiaries in my case(no family)
??? 
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
So, I’m not sure why, maybe I just got lucky, or maybe it’s just the bank I was dealing with (Wells Fargo), but my father added me as a joint owner on his bank accounts and when he passed, I was able to continue using the account until I closed it. They even recommended that I keep it open in case any checks came in so that I could deposit them into the account. My friend had the opposite experience with a credit union. They shut down the account immediately upon the death of her MIL, who had put her DIL’s name on the account. She had to get all kinds of documents in order to access the money too.
So, here’s an article I found that helps explain it. https://www.bankrate.com/banking/what-happens-to-your-bank-account-after-death/
It’s possible that, while your situation involved you being a joint owner of your father’s account with right of survivorship, your friend’s situation involved her being a beneficiary of her MIL’s account. If that was the case, your friend would have to show evidence of the account owner’s death, (her MIL,) before the CU would release the funds to your friend. The same would hold true if she was a joint account owner but not have the rights of survivorship.
Since Wells Fargo was involved, you were indeed lucky. 
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m seeing! I thought I had everything planned out – my sister is listed as joint owner w/ survivorship, and the credit union said they would still close the account if I pass away!!
Thanks for the article!
Since Wells Fargo was involved, you were indeed lucky.
I was thinking the same thing…Wells Fargo 
That really makes no sense. That’s the whole purpose of having a joint account, so the survivor has rights to the account. I would go speak to someone else. Perhaps you were given bad information.
I think you may have bad info from your CU. I just called mine and they said that a surviving joint owner of a joint-owned account has full access. The only exception might be if fraud was suspected, then the lockdown would be in place until identity was proven.
If what you say is true, I’d look for another CU.
I agree with H here…Joint Tenancy with ROTS is part of the estate and should be allowed to have an ownership change instead of forcing to be closed.
RE post #45: he might have named them as beneficiary. That would explain the hoops they were forced to jump thru before getting access.
Yes…as a beneficiary…it would go through whatever estate process the bank or credit union uses.
For example, here is the BofA process and handling of account ownership (page 9):
I would imagine that every institution has a published policy somewhere.
You both must think that owning stock is not part of capitalism. Tell that to the people in Cuba, or Russia, and many other socialist countries. Stock ownership is owning a part of a company that produces capitalist goods. But where ALL property is owned by the party elites and dictators in charge, the common people never get a chance at any kind of ownership, including stock in companies. The current batch of youngsters think that socialism is a great idea and hope to get more of it here. Now you can laugh.
Russia is not a socialist country, it is a Federal semi-presidential republic under an authoritarian dictatorship, it’s economy is capitalistic and controlled by wealthy robber barons favored by the authoritarian ruler(s), aka: a kleptocracy.
Modern Socialism is quite different, the governmental body often drifts into a dictatorship but the economy is not profit-driven but instead needs-driven and caters to the state’s needs first, and the general population’s needs second. In practice it rarely works for very long.
The United States is a democratic republic with a capitalist economy, at least for the present.
I don’t think that pure democracy or pure socialism have existed in a long time. Now there are a lot of youngsters that think they need something called democratic socialism. I suppose that is where you still have sham, rigged elections, but the Party strong man always wins…Wait, that sounds like what is going on now!
Russia used to be a socialist state. It no longer is.
All information on the handling of bank accounts after the primary holder dies points to the fact that different banks and credit unions handle the process in different ways. It seems to be a bank choice as to whether the account is frozen from even joint owners. Some banks may think it reduces their liability if they freeze the account until more paperwork from some legal authority is produced.
I am soooo glad this topic surfaced. It made me check my beneficiary lists. Three of my financials were okay, but my bank removed one of my heirs…!
Grrrrrr…now trying to fix it.