Joint saving account is meant for convenience when either one of the spouse needs it the most. But most people always assume once the other holder dies, another half will get the money automatically which is INCORRECT! Why.....??
When one person dies, the other joint holder of the saving account will get the money automatically IF that particular bank practises 'JOINT TENANCY' - which means when one party dies, the other joint party gets money automatically.
Unfortunately, not all banks practise JOINT TENANCY, some foreign banks practise and most local banks don't. If you want to be sure, just ask your bank if the joint saving account is based on JOINT TENANCY.
Some banks have this clause called “Survivorship Clause“. This is more easily understood….to mean that if there are two or more names in a joint-account, the survivor (the one who didn’t die) gets to have all the money in the joint account.
It is a separate paper for the account holders to sign when opening, or sometimes even after the account have been opened previously, in order to say that the account holders themselves, opt for this “Survivorship Clause”.
