First - I would like to thank all of those who responded to the post. I sincerely appreciate your time and reply. Each was helpful along the path to a final solution. I think it important to also note that when reaching out with a post - my effort - has always been to be as succinct possible - which doesn't always give the entire set of circumstances surrounding the issue.
Second - Background and TT Failure. My filing status - Married Filing Jointly (2nd time). The issue I ran into was TT's failure to correctly address this filing status in both the 'Walk Me Through Everything' (WMTE) and the 'I'll Choose What to Work On' modes. I also admit that I'm somewhat tax literate but not tax savvy. That's what I use TT for.
Failure Explanation: TT does not ask the qualifying questions for the return in order to correctly prompt for income information. For example: If filing jointly, is income under a joint account or separate accounts? Separate meaning same financial institution but spouse has accounts under their SSN and you have accounts under your SSN. So when going through either mode TT lists the reported institutions from last year's return, you're presented with 3 choices You, Spouse, or Both. Where Both is not made clear if it applies to joint account only or can be used to add yours then spouse's 1099-INT or DIVS together. TT NEEDS to clarify how Both is to be used. Ultimately if separate accounts the approach for both falls apart for Both.
Solution - What I Did: I started TT over and created a new return. (Why? Because past experience with TT where you have incorrectly entered information and then try to go back and correct the entry TT does not completely correct the entry and this is caught during review, with incorrect forms and calculation errors- causing more headaches).
Got to Interest and Dividend Income entry - either mode - and entered all my data for interest income. Then at last entry for interest income selected another 'Add interest income' and then added the same institution for spouse - selecting Spouse as who 'This interest belongs to. . .' Did this for both 1099-INTs and DIVs and 1099-B's where we both had accounts under our respective SSN. Then the correct summary page was presented under Interest and Dividends and Investment Income.
Sorry for the long-worded explanation but is needed for the solution presented here.
Hope this helps others who may be in the same or familiar situation.
