The entireties presumption reaches specific financial assets
Michigan Statute 557.151 extends the same basic idea behind tenancy by the entirety in real estate to a defined list of personal property. Bonds, stock certificates, mortgages, promissory notes, debentures, and other evidences of indebtedness made payable to a husband and wife are held by them in the same manner, and subject to the same conditions, as jointly held real estate between spouses — with full right of survivorship. Michigan courts have gone further, recognizing a presumption that this category of property is genuinely held by the entirety, not just an ordinary joint tenancy, unless an intent to hold it otherwise was expressly stated somewhere.
Strong protection against an individual spouse's creditors
Where this presumption genuinely applies, the protection mirrors what real estate gets under entireties ownership: a creditor of just one spouse generally can't reach the account or security at all. Only a creditor with a judgment against both spouses together can. This can matter enormously in situations like a lawsuit, a business debt, or a professional liability claim against just one spouse — assets that would otherwise look vulnerable can be shielded if they genuinely qualify for entireties treatment.
A bank's own paperwork isn't the final word
What makes this presumption genuinely powerful is how hard it is to accidentally waive. A real Michigan Supreme Court case involved a creditor trying to reach a married couple's accounts using a judgment against only the husband, pointing to the bank's own internal records — which had labeled the accounts using joint-tenancy terminology. The court held that this labeling, standing alone, didn't defeat the entireties presumption, because no affirmative expression of a contrary intent had actually been made. The presumption survives sloppy or generic account paperwork; it takes a genuine, expressed intent to hold the property some other way to overcome it.
What this means practically for account holders
A married Michigan couple opening a joint account generally doesn't need to take any special extra step to get entireties treatment for the categories of personal property the statute covers — the presumption applies by default. That said, anyone who genuinely wants to hold an account as an ordinary joint tenancy instead, for whatever reason, needs to make that intent explicit and documented, since a generic label alone won't accomplish it.
P.O.D. designations, life insurance, and retirement accounts
A payable-on-death (P.O.D.) beneficiary designation works differently from joint ownership between co-owners. The named P.O.D. beneficiary has no rights to the account during the owner's life, and receives whatever remains only once the owner dies. Life insurance and retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA follow the same basic rule — the named beneficiary receives the asset directly, outside probate, as long as they're alive when the owner dies, and it only becomes part of the probate estate if no beneficiary was ever named or every named beneficiary predeceased the owner with no contingent beneficiary in place.