I have a checking account in a living trust. I would like to have a joint owner not specified in the living trust. I can see how it would be confusing upon my incapacitation or death, since there would be an owner on the account, but is it a matter of banking preference or laws that this cannot be done?
When trusts are involved, banks are correctly very careful about who signs on the accounts. Unless the trust documents themselves specify that a trustee can add an authorized signer, banks won't permit it.
As for having the checking account jointly owned, one owner the trust and the other owner an individual, it simply isn't acceptable under the laws that authorize trusts. If more than one trustee is named in the trust and active, both trustees could sign. That does not include any successor trustees or trustees-in-waiting.
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When trusts are involved, banks are correctly very careful about who signs on the accounts. Unless the trust documents themselves specify that a trustee can add an authorized signer, banks won't permit it.