Do not add anyone else as an owner on your bank accounts (checking, savings, certificates of deposit, etc.) other than your spouse until you consider the legal consequences.

When you add someone else’s name to your accounts you add that other person’s creditors. In other words, if you add a child’s name to your account, and he/she gets into an automobile accident and gets sued, then your money will be easily available to pay off that judgment. Or, what if your son doesn’t pay his child support? If his name is on your account then your money can be taken to pay his child support arrearage. Or, if you child has to file bankruptcy? There goes your money.

Another problem is that when you add someone to your account then you have placed that person in the position of inheriting that account from you. For example, if you want your estate to go to all of your children equally, but only one of them receives this account as a joint owner, then that child has inherited more than the other children.

Finally, when you add someone else’s name to your money there is nothing stopping that person from making withdrawals from the account - or, even depleting the entire account. Think it doesn’t happen? It happens all the time. Sometimes the other owner just intends to “borrow” the money because they are in a bind, but then they never pay it back to the account.

If you are concerned that your bills won’t be paid if you become mentally incapacitated then the answer is for you to sign a Financial Power of Attorney - not just add someone’s name to your accounts. Protections can be built into a power of attorney document that will give you the level of comfort that you need to see that your assets are properly managed.