What to do when a Amerant account holder dies

When the account owner or last co-owner dies, Amerant may pay the remaining funds to the then-surviving POD beneficiaries. It pays each surviving beneficiary an equal amount unless the owner instructed otherwise in writing -- on the signature card, in an executed letter, or another written form the bank accepts. The payout is subject to Amerant's right to charge the account for anything a deceased owner, co-owner, or beneficiary owes the bank, and the claimant agrees to indemnify and hold the bank harmless for the distribution. If no POD beneficiary survives the owner, the deposit belongs to the estate of the last surviving owner. Amerant reads "POD," "ITF," "ATF," "TOD," and "Totten Trust" account wording as the same POD designation.

Amerant's deposit agreement lets the bank debit the account and return the money to the payer for any deposit -- salary, pension, Social Security, or Supplemental Security Income -- credited after the date of death. Do not spend those payments. Notify the Social Security Administration and any pension administrator of the death promptly so the payments stop, and expect Amerant to reverse anything that already posted. The account balance you eventually receive as beneficiary or personal representative is the balance net of those reversals.

That account belongs to the estate of the last surviving owner, so Amerant needs authority from the Florida probate court plus a certified death certificate and your ID. Formal administration produces Letters of Administration for the personal representative. Florida summary administration is available where the value of the estate subject to administration in Florida (less property exempt from creditors' claims) does not exceed $150,000, or the decedent has been dead more than two years (Fla. Stat. 735.201), and it ends in an order of summary administration that directs the bank to pay. For very small estates, disposition without administration (Fla. Stat. 735.301) can work. Amerant's banking centers are all in Florida now, so this is the usual track -- though the governing rules follow the decedent's state of residence.

MidFirst Bank. Amerant completed the sale of its Texas operations and six Houston-area banking centers to MidFirst Bank on November 8, 2024, and Amerant now operates only in Florida -- 18 South Florida banking centers plus one in Tampa. A Houston-area account that carried the Amerant name before that date is a MidFirst account today, so the death certificate, the claim, and any probate paperwork go to MidFirst, not to Amerant. Amerant's deposit agreement still cites "Florida / Texas law" on payable-on-death accounts, which is a holdover from the sold franchise and not a sign of a current Texas footprint.