Understanding What Kind of Property is a Bank Account

A bank account is a type of property, but it's not a tangible one like a house or a car. It's a financial asset that holds value, just like cash in your wallet.

In the eyes of the law, a bank account is considered personal property. This means it's owned by the individual who opened it and is subject to their control.

Think of it like this: just as you can use your car to drive to work, you can use your bank account to make purchases or pay bills.

A bank account is a type of intangible property that allows individuals and businesses to store, manage, and transfer funds. It's a digital representation of a person's or company's wealth.

You can think of a bank account as a virtual wallet that's linked to your identity, and it's used to make transactions, receive payments, and keep track of your financial history.

Bank accounts are typically opened with a bank or credit union, and they come in various types, such as checking and savings accounts, which we'll discuss later in this article.

A joint account gives both account holders equal access to the account and equal responsibility for transactions made through it, unless specified otherwise.

In most cases, the other account holder can make transactions without your consent, which can be a double-edged sword.

You can specify that all joint account holders must agree to access the funds, but this is not always the case.

Joint accounts often include the right of survivorship, meaning the surviving account holder becomes the owner of the account after the other account holder passes away.

However, this can lead to delays and potential disputes over inheritance, requiring the surviving account holder to prove the deceased intended the remaining funds to be a gift.

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In probate litigation, the language of a will can be a source of dispute. The decedent's will in one case explicitly listed "personal property" as being given to Arabia Vargas, but did not specify what that term included.

The probate court's decision in this case suggests that the term "personal property" can be interpreted to include a bank account. This was the court's conclusion after Arabia argued that the decedent's bank account should be considered part of the "personal property" left to her.

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In probate litigation cases, disputes often arise over the language included in a decedent's will. The decedent's will in this case included specific bequests of family photos, furnishings, and mementos to Tracy Eileen Mitchell, and the remainder of the property to be split between two parties.

The decedent's will specified that the remainder of the property, wherever located, would be split 50/50 between Tracy Eileen Mitchell and her issue, and Lina Schmidt Hollis and Andrea Wendy Vasquez, and each of their issue.

Arabia Vargas, the decedent's life partner, and Tracy Eileen Mitchell, the decedent's sister, disagreed over the application of the will's language to the decedent's bank account. Arabia believed that "personal property" included the bank account, while Tracy did not.

The probate court ultimately found in favor of Arabia, concluding that the term "personal property" did indeed include the bank account.

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In Texas, defined terms are given their ordinary meaning. This means that if a term is defined in a specific code, such as the Estates Code, it should be interpreted in its most straightforward sense.

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The term "personal property" is a good example of this. In Texas, courts have long held that personal property includes all property other than real estate.

When a will is clear and unambiguous, courts must enforce its terms as written, without reinterpreting them based on additional rules or canons of construction. This means that if a will specifically states how an asset should be distributed, that's exactly how it should be done.