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It appears that Vanguard on 9/20/2025 changed their lack of an option to transfer a joint taxable brokerage upon the death of the last owner to survive via a Transfer On Death designation. My understanding is you now may do so via completing a online form, printing, executing the form and mailing the completed form to Vanguard. Making that change does not yet appear to be an action you can currently do online.
I think you can find their form here.
Of course it is better to go directly to the financial website you use directly and find the form there than relying on the link I found online.
Vanguard appropriately advises and urges you to consult with your legal advisor before you enroll and before making changes so that if you do not understand any of the ramifications of making the change you have been warned.
Thanks to a recent Bogleheads Forum post for alerting me of this change at Vanguard. Reminds me of the quip about what I know for sure being wrong. Yep, things change, once again.
This is great news although we moved the majority of our joint brokerage account to Fidelity just for this reason! Fidelity allowed a beneficiary to be listed on a joint account and the fact that Vanguard did not was a problem. But, we’ve always kept a small amount in the account so thanks for this update!
It is unclear to me why Vanguard had taken the position they did in regards to previously not allowing beneficiaries to be appropriately named on their jointly owned taxable accounts.
I feel the same way towards my state laws that still does not allow us an option for a transfer on death in our deed as many states do. I know that we could have a revocable living trust to accomplish the same objective upon our deaths, I just do not understand why the large organizations do not allow the simple options.
Thank you so much for posting this information! About 2 yrs ago my husband and I tried to add a TOD to our joint Vanguard money market brokerage account to make things easier for our sons after the last one of us passes and Vanguard wouldn’t allow it. I was so frustrated that I considered pulling all our accounts out of Vanguard. It was the only financial institution that we were dealing with that wouldn’t allow it. At the time we ended up opening separate taxable brokerage accounts and dividing up the funds so we could add the beneficiaries. It was quite a pain. Now that I know that they will accept a TOD we’re going to add it to our joint account, move the funds back and close the two unnecessary single accounts! I always learn something reading Humble Dollar. Thank you to all the contributors!
I am glad I learned of the change and that sharing the change was helpful.
Best, Bill
Is it the case that previously you couldn’t just designate a beneficiary(s) on a joint taxable brokerage account? I must be misunderstanding.
That was the case when I opened our joint taxable at Vanguard. Here is a link to the Boglehead’s Forum that got me looking at the issue again.
Wow! That is wild. Talk about being in the dark ages…
There’s some bad advice in that thread. Glad to see people weren’t buying it.
I have the same question. My taxable account has primary and secondary beneficiaries. How is this “death kit” any different??
Hi Mark. Is your taxable account ownership joint? That might be the difference.
In my name only though I was going to see if I could amend to joint ownership.
Hey Bill,
I think it’s well known here that I am a big Vanguard fan. This post is timely because tomorrow we are going to our elder law attorney to sign updated estate documents. It’s monetarily painful but as Vanguard advises we are going to follow his counsel.