Opening a Joint Tenants WROS Account at Charles Schwab
Investors who want a brokerage account with more than one owner may consider a Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship (WROS) account. Charles Schwab offers this registration with multiple ownership and survivorship rights, along with many of the services and features available through its other brokerage accounts.
Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship
A Joint Tenants WROS account allows two or more individuals to own a brokerage account together. Each account holder has authority over the account, and when one owner dies, that person’s interest passes directly to the surviving owner or owners. Instead of becoming part of the deceased owner’s estate, the interest transfers through the account’s right-of-survivorship registration.
Schwab does not make this account registration available in Louisiana or Puerto Rico.
A Joint Tenants WROS account at Charles Schwab uses the broker’s standard brokerage-account pricing. There are no account-opening fees, annual maintenance fees, inactivity fees, or minimum balance requirements.
Joint Tenants WROS accounts provide access to stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, and options, subject to the normal eligibility and approval requirements. Eligible joint brokerage accounts may also apply separately for futures and forex trading.
A joint brokerage account can be opened through
Schwab’s convenient online application. However, if the account will have three or more owners, a paper application must be used instead of the broker's electronic form.
Other Joint Accounts at Charles Schwab
Investors who decide that a Joint Tenants WROS registration is not appropriate can choose from several other joint-account structures available through Charles Schwab.
One alternative is a Tenants in Common account, which gives every co-owner a separate interest in the account’s assets. The ownership interests do not have to be equal and may reflect the owners’ net contributions. This type of account allows for three or more owners, each with their designated share of the account's assets.
When an owner of a Tenants in Common account dies, that person’s interest generally becomes part of their estate rather than transferring automatically to the surviving account holders. This is an important difference between Tenants in Common and WROS registrations.
Please note that nonresident aliens cannot open a Joint Tenants in Common account.
Charles Schwab also offers Community Property and Community Property with Rights of Survivorship registrations for married couples in eligible states. In a standard Community Property account, each spouse has a one-half interest in the assets, while the treatment of a deceased spouse’s share depends on the registration, applicable state law, and estate plan. With a Community Property with Rights of Survivorship registration, the deceased spouse’s interest passes to the surviving spouse.
Schwab also provides a Tenants by the Entirety registration for married couples in selected states where this ownership structure is legally available.
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Written by Alex Bost
Updated on 4/22/2026.
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