Account Title Changes-in the event of Death

Posted By: august

Account Title Changes-in the event of Death - 07/06/12 07:50 PM

We have a procedure written many years ago that states: In the case of death, a title change on the account is not allowed if there are multiple POD's. An account titling change can occur if there is only one POD. We are wondering if anyone has an opinion on why this would be the case?
Posted By: Doug Hendrickson

Re: Account Title Changes-in the event of Death - 07/06/12 08:39 PM

Without knowing the background, I'm presuming that whoever wrote the procedure felt that if the sole POD wanted to keep the funds in the account, they could just re-title it in the PODs name. If there were multiple PODs, re-titling would require all of them to agree to a joint account with the others.

Our philosophy has always been, pay the beneficiaries and close the account. If any of them chooose to keep the money with us, we'll open a new account under their name(s). This avoids a host of problems.
Posted By: BurntSienna

Re: Account Title Changes-in the event of Death - 07/06/12 08:55 PM

We do the same as Doug indicates. Keeps the headaches to a minimum.
Posted By: Elwood P. Dowd

Re: Account Title Changes-in the event of Death - 07/09/12 11:35 AM

My store of anecdotes about the problems banks caused themselves by doing things the easy way; e.g. using file maintenance a a method to change account ownership, grows every year. As indicated:

Quote:
pay the beneficiaries and close the account


The person who wrote your original procedure limiting the practice of editing account titles to a single POD beneficiary was smart, just not as smart as he might have been.
Posted By: august

Re: Account Title Changes-in the event of Death - 07/09/12 08:24 PM

Thank you all for your feedback, this was my line of thinking.