Tenants in Common Accounts in Probate

[Dbeasy 15,239]

I had a quick question regarding Tenants in Common Accounts and probate. Hopefully one of the Surly lawyers can easily answer this. I realized that some of our main accounts are TIC instead of JTWROS, because we used to have a Trust that formed upon the death of one of the spouses, and moving those funds to the trust was required for estate planning purposes.  We eliminated that trust a few years ago. But I realized that if one of us dies, a few of our main investment accounts will have to go to probate.  In probtate, does that completely freeze the account from the surviving spouse? Are they not able to withdraw from that account, or change investments?

[HouTex 1,901]

There may be a temporary freezing if, and when, the bank finds out about the death.  If I understand your situation, half of the TIC account becomes the property of the deceased spouse's estate upon death and then subject to probate.  Half of the account would be owned by the other TIC.  There could be a temporary freezing of the account until the separation gets worked out and the bank may want to see letters testamentary establishing the executor's authority and that could take several weeks depending on the probate court.  And the bank/brokerage firm might have their own procedures in place and I can tell you that Merrill Lynch (BofA) will have a NYC-based attorney involved and they don't know shit about Texas law--assuming Texas law applies.  All of that said, if the surviving spouse/TIC is the sole heir under a will, or applicable law, it may be easy to get the bank/brokerage firm to act quickly.  If the deceased spouse has surviving children by a previous marriage or if there are other testamentary trusts involved, it will complicate matters.