Readers’ forum: Can interest from joint account be divided other than equally?

My client has received a substantial inheritance from her parents. She intends to place the money on deposit and will receive interest. She is liable to income tax at the basic rate and her husband is liable at the higher rate. The husband is happy for the inheritance to be placed in a bank account in the sole name of his wife on the grounds that it was bequeathed to her and that a lower rate of income tax will apply to the interest.

However they are getting on in years and she believes that if the account was in joint names it might make things easier if one of them were to die as the other would have immediate access to the funds (which wouldn’t be subject to probate).

If the statement about probate not being required for the survivor to access the funds is correct...