Joint accounts, death and avoiding probate

[Oswulf]

I an account with Interactive Brokers in the US. I discovered that I could not name a beneficiary; Transfer On Death (TOD) is only available where the account owner is living in America. (I'm British, living in Asia.) Probate would be required for my husband to access my investments - a complicated and costly procedure at the best of times, more so when trying to do it from half a world away. (I have no other assets in the USA, so probate would be just for a single brokerage account.)

I then asked IBKR whether a joint account with my husband would get around the need for probate, and they replied "no".

Anyone know how I can hold my investments offshore (i.e. outside the UK) and pass them on to my husband when I'm gone with a minimum of fuss?

Thanks.

[Lootman]

I an account with Interactive Brokers in the US. I discovered that I could not name a beneficiary; Transfer On Death (TOD) is only available where the account owner is living in America. (I'm British, living in Asia.) Probate would be required for my husband to access my investments - a complicated and costly procedure at the best of times, more so when trying to do it from half a world away. (I have no other assets in the USA, so probate would be just for a single brokerage account.)

I then asked IBKR whether a joint account with my husband would get around the need for probate, and they replied "no".

Anyone know how I can hold my investments offshore (i.e. outside the UK) and pass them on to my husband when I'm gone with a minimum of fuss?

I am surprised that a US broker told you that you a joint account would fail to circumvent probate. My understanding is that a US account held by two people (married or not) where "Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship" (JTWROS) is designated, would indeed allow the assets in that account to pass automatically to the surviving tenant without probate, just as would happen in the UK.

However that said it might still be tricky for the survivor to actually access those assets if he is not resident in the US and/or does not have a US social security number.

Given that Interactive Brokers is a global broker, could it not be possible to transfer this account to a non-US part of IBKR? Or just close the account and move the money to a less-restrictive and more convenient locale?

PS: That Transfer-on-Death provision of US accounts is an incredibly useful and friendly device to avoid probate. It really is too bad that you cannot use it in your case. And more generally that the UK does not have an equivalent provision.