@mangles1 wrote:
Apparently there is no way for them to simply take my mother's name off the accounts and leave them in my name only.
Of course there's a way to do that. That would be the normal procedure when one owner of a joint account dies. It should be routine, and should only take a few days. You need to talk to someone more knowledgeable. Ask whether the brokerage has a department that specializes in handling inheritances.
If you later transfer the assets to your joint account with your husband, that might be considered a gift of half the value from you to your husband. But gifts between spouses have no tax consequences.
The fact that your husband's SSN is the primary SSN on the account does not make him the only owner. If it's a joint account, you and he are both owners equally.
