Joint tenancy with right of survivorship

What it means

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship means each owner owns the whole thing rather than a share of it. On a death, the survivors continue to own it, and nothing passes through the estate.

It is common on houses, bank accounts and vehicles. On paperwork it is often abbreviated JTWROS, or written as "and" between the names rather than "or".

It is not the same as tenancy in common, where each owner has a distinct share that does pass to their own heirs.

Why it matters

It decides whether an asset is in the estate at all, which in turn decides whether probate is needed.

It also overrides the will, which surprises families where the will divides a house among three children and the deed put it in joint tenancy with one.

When you are likely to meet it

• When looking at a deed, a title or an account registration.
• When deciding whether an asset has to go through probate.
• When adding a child to a parent's account or deed — which has consequences beyond the death.

Ways two people can own the same thing

The words on the deed decide whether a court process is needed. They are easy to misread and rarely explained at signing.

Which forms a state recognizes, and which it presumes when the deed is silent, are set by state law.

How this varies by state

Whether joint tenancy is presumed or must be stated explicitly, and how it interacts with a spouse's rights, are set by state law.

Related terms

• Certificate of titleThe state-issued document that proves who owns a vehicle — and whose issuing state decides the procedure after a death.
• Community propertyIn some states, most of what a married couple acquires during the marriage belongs to both of them equally, whatever the paperwork says.
• DeedThe recorded document that says who owns a piece of real property, and how they hold it.
• Due-on-sale clauseA mortgage term letting the lender demand the whole balance if the property changes hands — with exceptions that cover inheritance.
• Non-probate assetSomething that passes to a new owner automatically, without a court.
• Partition actionA court case brought by one co-owner to divide property, or force its sale, when the owners cannot agree.
• Probate assetSomething owned in the deceased person's name alone, with nobody named to receive it.
• Simultaneous deathThe rule deciding who inherits when two people die together and the order cannot be established.
• Slayer ruleA person who unlawfully kills somebody cannot inherit from them.
• Right of survivorshipA form of shared ownership where the survivor automatically takes the whole thing.
• Tenancy by the entiretyA form of joint ownership available only to married couples in some states, with survivorship and unusually strong protection from one spouse's creditors.
• Tenancy in commonCo-ownership where each owner has their own share, and that share passes to their heirs rather than to the other owners.
• Authorized signerSomebody a bank permits to transact on an account they do not own. It is access without ownership, and it ends at the account holder's death.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Do I need probate?