Joint tenants account transfer after death of one tenant

[mangles1]

My mother and I hold two joint tenancy accounts, a brokerage account and a savings account.  My mother has recently passed away.  I want to transfer the assets of these accounts to the accounts I hold jointly with my husband.    Is there any tax issue here?  The brokerage house warned me to check on tax consequences because my husband's SSN is the primary one on our joint accounts.

[Anonymous_]

Did the brokerage house provide any specific information?

Generally, upon the death of one joint tenant, the assets in an account held by two joint tenants (with rights of survivorship) passes to the survivor by operation of law.

[mangles1]

The brokerage person who called admitted she is not an attorney or a tax accountant, but just wanted to make sure I investigated possible tax consequences.  Her concern is that my husband has the primary SSN on our joint accounts, my mother was the primary SSN on her joint accounts with me, and somehow transferring these assets could be deemed a gift to him.   It doesn't make sense to me but I'm not an attorney or a tax accountant either. 

They did send me forms for transferring the funds.  Apparently there is no way for them to simply take my mother's name off the accounts and leave them in my name only.

[rjs]

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@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.

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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.