<p>A theoretical framework for assessing the temporal stability and spatial–temporal accuracy of the least squares meshfree collocation method (LSMC) is presented with particular reference to the transient heat conduction analysis via generalized trapezoidal rule (GTR). It is shown that the fully symmetric formulation of LSMC for steady problems is essentially lost during transient analysis. Owing to this loss of symmetry, the eigenmode orthogonality frequently used for modal reduction is not ensured and complex eigenvalues may arise for the transient computation by LSMC. To circumvent these difficulties, the underlying generalized eigenvalue problem of LSMC is clearly identified and the linear independence of the corresponding eigenmodes is directly employed to derive the decoupled characteristic equations for the stability analysis of LSMC with GTR. It is proved that both real and imaginary parts of the eigenvalues contribute to the temporal stability and a specific criterion is then established for the time step estimation. Subsequently, an accuracy analysis is performed for LSMC, where the errors due to the spatial as well as temporal discretizations are systematically examined. These theoretical results provide valuable insights into the stability and accuracy of LSMC for the transient heat conduction analysis, which are consistently validated by numerical examples. </p>