Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

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Topic Author
CashConfessions
Posts: 147
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:24 pm

Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

Post by CashConfessions »

Hello,

Recently engaged and my fiancée and I (late 30's/early 40's) recently received gift checks from our parents. We both have individual brokerage accounts with Schwab which we intend to keep separate, but want to use this money to start a joint account for the future.

Question: could I establish an individual account at Schwab and easily convert it to a joint account once we're married, or would it be easier to wait until after we're married to set up a joint account?

Disclaimers/Notes:

(1) We're both financially secure and extra income at this point is for investing.
(2) The amount isn't material, and if something happened to us/our relationship before we get married, the amounts in question wouldn't matter one way or the other.
(3) Fiancée reads Bogleheads, too, so she will likely see this (hi, hon!).
secondcor521
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Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:11 pm

Re: Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

Post by secondcor521 »

Congratulations on the engagement!

I'm not 100% sure, but given that the account number is likely tied to the account titling, which in turn has tax and ownership implications, I doubt you could open a separate single account and later convert that same account to a joint account at Schwab or anywhere else.

Given your comments at the end, I'd just keep everything separate for now and then open joint accounts and move stuff around after the wedding. If you end up investing some of the funds, I think you should be able to transfer assets in-kind so there would not be any taxable capital gain (nor time out of the market) when moving assets into the joint account.

If your parents wrote checks to "CashConfessions and fiancee" I'd either ask them to write another check out just to you or ask your fiancee to sign the check over to you or whatever your bank recommends. Same advice to her if her parents wrote checks to both of you.

Presumably you both are fully trusting each other and cooperating and open kimono on finances and have a good understanding of who is paying for what on the wedding between you/her/the parents. If so, then it's all just making things easy in a practical sense. Maybe you put down the deposit on the venue and the caterer, and she buys the plane tickets for the honeymoon. Or you Venmo or Zelle money to each other as needed.
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WinstonTeracina
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Re: Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

Post by WinstonTeracina »

CashConfessions wrote: Thu Jan 26, 2023 10:01 pm Question: could I establish an individual account at Schwab and easily convert it to a joint account once we're married, or would it be easier to wait until after we're married to set up a joint account?

Disclaimers/Notes:

(1) We're both financially secure and extra income at this point is for investing.
(2) The amount isn't material, and if something happened to us/our relationship before we get married, the amounts in question wouldn't matter one way or the other.
(3) Fiancée reads Bogleheads, too, so she will likely see this (hi, hon!).
Congratulations to both of you. My wife and I got married in early 2021 and the process of adding her as a joint account holder to my existing Schwab One Brokerage and High Yield Checking Accounts was extremely easy. I filled out the below document and I was able to upload it through the Schwab website where they took a couple of weeks to verify the information and eventually get her added to the account.

https://www.schwab.com/resource/add-acc ... ic-account
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Topic Author
CashConfessions
Posts: 147
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

Post by CashConfessions »

Thank you both for the information!

I think just to keep it easy we'll just wait for a few months and open the account then. Again, really appreciate it.
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ResearchMed
Posts: 16767
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 10:25 pm

Re: Changing Individual Account to Joint (Schwab)

Post by ResearchMed »

WinstonTeracina wrote: Thu Jan 26, 2023 10:43 pm
CashConfessions wrote: Thu Jan 26, 2023 10:01 pm Question: could I establish an individual account at Schwab and easily convert it to a joint account once we're married, or would it be easier to wait until after we're married to set up a joint account?

Disclaimers/Notes:

(1) We're both financially secure and extra income at this point is for investing.
(2) The amount isn't material, and if something happened to us/our relationship before we get married, the amounts in question wouldn't matter one way or the other.
(3) Fiancée reads Bogleheads, too, so she will likely see this (hi, hon!).
Congratulations to both of you. My wife and I got married in early 2021 and the process of adding her as a joint account holder to my existing Schwab One Brokerage and High Yield Checking Accounts was extremely easy. I filled out the below document and I was able to upload it through the Schwab website where they took a couple of weeks to verify the information and eventually get her added to the account.

https://www.schwab.com/resource/add-acc ... ic-account

We still have one single name account at Schwab, and in the near future, we'll be transferring more money there, and probably eventually pare things down to TIAA and Schwab.

When we checked, Schwab said it would be extremely simple to add the other name to the existing account, no need to open a new one.
Good to know that does work.

RM
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