Answer:
A basic rule of powers of attorney is that the attorney-in-fact cannot add, change or remove POD beneficiary designations without specific stated authority within the power of attorney.
As to changing the title of the account, I don't see the need for it. The attorney-in-fact's name doesn't need to be included in the account's styling, so I suspect that your bank might do it to make it easier for tellers to know about the power of attorney and Joe Smith's authority.
One way to handle it is to set up three lines:
Jane Customer
Joe Smith, AIF
POD Sally Jones
An even better way to style such an account, I think, is to keep both the attorney-in-fact and the POD (or ITF) beneficiary out of public view by removing them from the account styling altogether, if your bank's systems and procedures are able to manage authorized signers and beneficiaries in other parts of the account record. The FDIC's deposit insurance rules on revocable trust accounts at 31 CFR 330.10 don't require that the designation of an account as a revocable trust account be included in the account "title" as long as they are so designated (and the beneficiaries are identified, if it's a POD or ITF account) elsewhere in the deposit account records of the institution.
First published on BankersOnline.com 6/4/12
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