How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at American Express

Adding a beneficiary converts the account to a payable-on-death (POD) account.¹

Beneficiaries are added to each account separately. A designation on one account does not carry to the owner's other Amex Savings accounts, and the designations do not have to match.²

Beneficiaries must be natural persons; pets are not permitted.¹

A trust cannot be named as a POD beneficiary. A trust is reached only by re-titling the account, not by designation.¹

A business cannot be named as a POD beneficiary.¹

A charity cannot be named as a POD beneficiary.¹

Up to six individuals may be designated as beneficiaries on each account. Funds are distributed equally among the beneficiaries living at the time of payment, and different proportions cannot be specified.¹

The printable form states the six-beneficiary cap but prints five name blocks, so a sixth beneficiary has to be added online or attached.³

If the account is jointly owned, both account owners must complete and sign the Beneficiary Designation Form.³

In community property states (AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI) the form has a separate consent signature line for a spouse or domestic partner to relinquish community and marital property rights. Amex states this consent may be advisable or appropriate when they are not the sole beneficiary.³

Completed by the account owner; on a joint account, both owners. Available to download.³

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Beneficiaries can be viewed, added, removed or edited online at any time and as often as the owner likes.²

The Beneficiary Designation Form replaces any beneficiaries currently on the account. To keep an existing beneficiary, list them again on the new form.³

POD beneficiary designations are automatically revoked and terminated if the account is re-titled to a revocable living trust.⁴

Amex has no obligation to notify any beneficiary that a P.O.D. account exists or that their interest has vested.¹

Only a revocable living trust can hold an account. No other form of trust is accepted: no irrevocable trust and no testamentary trust.⁴

The primary account owner must be a settlor or grantor (creator) of the trust.⁴

Accounts can only be re-titled, never opened, as revocable living trust accounts. The Savings account is opened first as an individual or joint account.⁴

Re-titling is one-way: "After re-titling an Account, the title may not be changed back from a trust to individual or joint owners." The only exit is opening a new account, transferring the funds, and closing the trust account.⁴

Each account owner in the bank's records must be a trustee authorized to act individually, without the consent, approval, or authorization of another trustee or party.⁴

Only the primary (first named) account owner can perform the re-titling. After re-titling, only the existing account owners in the bank's records may transact.⁴

The bank may close the account if any account owner dies or becomes legally incompetent, or if trust information given to the bank becomes inaccurate. The balance is then returned as "a check payable to the Trust, after receiving certification of the name and address of the trustee of the Trust."⁴

A successor trustee who was not an account owner gets no transactional authority from the trust document alone.⁴

The account owners agree that the Deposit Account Agreement continues to apply, "including (without limitation) the requirement that the Bank receive prompt written notice if any Account owner dies or becomes legally incompetent."^{4, 5}

The trust must use the Social Security number of the primary account owner named in the bank's records.⁴

The account owners agree to provide trust documents, additional trust-related certifications, and further trust information promptly on request.⁴