Joint Assets – The Danger of Sharing Your RV
By Rose Shawlee
When travelling for any period there is often an inclination to plan ahead. You have your maps ready,
visits to friends and family arranged. One common planning device is adding children to assets as joint
owners of the asset, be it bank accounts, real estate, or RV’s.
This tactic is fraught with peril. While many people advise that having assets in joint names may assist
in minimizing the effects of the probate process, unless you will be passing away in the immediate future
this may lead to unnecessary complications.
When a person is added as a joint owner of an asset you lose control of that asset. For example, if you add
a child as a joint owner of your home or RV, you cannot sell, transfer or mortgage that home or RV without that child's consent.
A commonly given piece of advice is "add your son/daughter to your bank account if you're going away, you can trust them".
Scarier words were never uttered. You may trust your child, but what is the risk that the monies in this account may be
mishandled, that adding that child to an account will antagonize your other children, or that the child's spouse may try
to exert influence on that account?
There are several scenarios that are unpleasant: the child and his/her spouse separate and that spouse tries to claim
part of the joint asset as a family asset and take part of it in the separation settlement; the child and your other
children end up in a bitter dispute upon your death as to whether you intended that child to be the sole beneficiary
of the joint asset or whether it was to be split equally between all the children; and last but not least the child
ties up the asset by not consenting to its transfer or mortgage during your lifetime if that is your wish.
The Supreme Court of Canada has muddled this already tangled area, by providing that, joint assets with a person
other than a spouse may not automatically pass to the other joint asset holder by right of survivorship, barring
clear evidence of such an intention on your part. Survivorship is where an asset automatically devolves to the
other joint asset holder upon the death of the other asset holder.
In short, should you be considering jointures (joint ownership) as part of your travel planning, consult your
lawyer and your banker in advance. In the meantime, enjoy the fruits of your other planning and have a wonderful
RVing experience.
Rose Shawlee is a lawyer with Benson Salloum Watts LLP and can be reached at
rshawlee@bensonsalloumwatts.com or (250) 491-0206
