Also known as: POD account · payable on death account · payable on death accounts · POD · payable on death
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A contractual arrangement between a depositor and a financial institution under which the depositor retains full control during life and directs payment of the balance to a designated beneficiary at death. The beneficiary acquires no interest until the depositor dies. The arrangement is created by the terms of the account itself.
Phuong Pham opens a checking account at a local bank and names Paula Pierce as the payable-on-death beneficiary on the signature card. During her lifetime Phuong retains sole authority to withdraw or pledge the funds. Upon Phuong's death the bank pays the remaining balance directly to Paula without any probate proceeding.
Preston Pratt maintains a certificate of deposit titled in his name with a POD designation to Parker Phillips. After Pratt's death a creditor of the estate claims the funds. The court determines that the POD designation passes the balance outside the probate estate and therefore beyond the creditor's reach.
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Yes. The funds transfer directly to the named beneficiary by contract and are not part of the decedent's probate estate.
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No. The account contract controls and a later will cannot alter the beneficiary designation on a POD account.
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Yes under the Uniform Probate Code. Divorce revokes any revocable disposition to a former spouse in a governing instrument unless the decree or a separate contract expressly preserves the designation.
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No. The beneficiary acquires no interest until the owner's death and the owner may change or revoke the designation at any time.
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…retirement account; and property acquired by right of survivorship, by a trust distribution, by bequest or inheritance or by a payable on death or a transfer on death arrangement under ch. 705. 3. With funds acquired in a manner provided in subd. 1. or 2. Wis. Stat. § 767.61(2)(a). If excluding this property "will create a…