Section 20.19 Joint Tenancy Accounts

• Library: Estate Administration 2014 Supp

D. (§20.19) Joint Tenancy Accounts

Many actions to discover assets seek to recover moneys held in joint bank accounts. Historically, joint bank accounts have been used by the “common man” as a method of avoiding probate. The implications of naming another on a bank account as a joint tenant with right of survivorship to expedite the transfer of assets on death have been the subject of much debate among legal scholars and drafters of legislation. See In re Estate of LaGarce, 487 S.W.2d 493 (Mo. banc 1972). Missouri common law has long required that a depositor have the intent to make a gift and make immediate transfer of interest to create a joint tenancy. Those common law theories of joint tenancy did not square well with other rules governing gift transfers—relinquishment of control—or the continuing problem of an ever-changing res. Furthermore, little certainty existed for financial institutions that were faced with an increasing barrage of litigation that usually focused on the intent of the deceased joint tenant. In an effort to reduce litigation and provide for the orderly transaction of business within financial institutions, the Missouri General Assembly created statutory regulation of joint accounts. Under current law, the focus is on the form of the account, and little emphasis is placed on the intent of the maker. A detailed analysis of this historical transformation may be found in Charles B. Blackmar, Another View of Joint Bank Accounts, 21 J. MoBar 394 (1965).

Missouri has two statutes pertaining to joint accounts. The language is virtually identical in each. Section 362.470.1, RSMo 2000, applies to banks and § 369.174.1, RSMo 2000, applies to savings and loans institutions. Section 362.470.1 provides, in part:

When a deposit is made by any person in the name of the depositor and any one or more other persons, whether minor or adult, as joint tenants or in form to be paid to any one or more of them, or the survivor or survivors of them and whether or not the names are stated in the conjunctive or the disjunctive or otherwise, the deposit thereupon and any additions thereto made by any of these persons, upon the making thereof, shall become the property of these persons as joint tenants, and the same, together with all interest thereon, shall be held for the exclusive use of the persons so named, and may be paid to any one of such persons during his lifetime, or to any one of the survivors of them after the death of any one or more of them.

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