How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Apple Bank

Checking, savings, money market and CD accounts take one to three In Trust For (I/T/F) or Payable on Death beneficiaries, recorded on the account title card.¹

Traditional, Roth, SEP, SIMPLE, Inherited Traditional and Inherited Roth IRAs take beneficiaries on the IRA/HSA Beneficiary Designation form.²

Keogh/QRP accounts take beneficiaries on the IRA/HSA Beneficiary Designation form, returned to Retirement Services.²

Health Savings Accounts take beneficiaries on the IRA/HSA Beneficiary Designation form.²

A trust may be named as beneficiary of an IRA on the IRA/HSA Beneficiary Designation form.²

A Totten Trust or Payable on Death deposit account may name one to three beneficiaries, and multiple beneficiaries always take equal shares. Percentages cannot be allocated on a deposit account.¹

The IRA/HSA form takes primary and contingent beneficiaries with percentages. Combined primary percentages must equal 100%, and combined contingent percentages must equal 100%.²

If primary or contingent status is not indicated, the person or entity is treated as a primary beneficiary.²

All account owners sign the signature card, each in the signature box that matches them. The beneficiary does not sign.^{1, 3}

If the owner resides in, or the account is located in, a community or marital property state and checks "I Am Married", the spouse must sign when a primary beneficiary other than the spouse is named.²

The form states it is the owner's responsibility to determine whether spousal consent is necessary. The owner signs, and an Apple Bank IRA/HSA Trustee/Custodian Representative countersigns.²

For payable-on-death accounts. Completed by every account owner. Provided at a branch.¹

For payable-on-death accounts. Completed by every account owner. Sent by the institution on request.³

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Completed by the account owner. Available to download.²

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Completed by the account owner. Sent by the institution on request.²

A Totten Trust account can be defeated by the owner's will: the deposit agreement pays the named beneficiary only if the owner "has not specifically revoked the Totten Trust account in his or her Last Will and Testament."¹

If a Totten Trust account is held by joint owners, the joint-account survivorship rules take precedence over the In Trust For beneficiary rules.¹

A beneficiary who dies before the owner takes nothing.¹

The Bank will not pay a beneficiary if it has received a court order directing it not to pay or to pay someone else.¹

The beneficiary has no power to withdraw while an owner is alive.¹

If a beneficiary is under 18 and the deposit is $10,000 or less, the Bank pays the parent or natural guardian. Above $10,000 it pays only a court-appointed guardian of the property.¹

To change or revoke a designation, the owner gives the Bank a signed, dated written order or request with enough information to make the change. The Bank reserves the right to require completion of its own forms.¹

A new beneficiary designation supersedes all prior designations for the same account.²

IRAs cannot be titled to a trust.⁵

Keogh/QRP accounts cannot be titled to a trust.⁵

Completed by all current trustees. Available to download. Must be notarized.⁵

The Certificate of Trust states its purpose is "to obtain information about the trust while preserving the confidentiality of the trust's terms." The trustee provides only the first page and the signature page of the trust.⁵

The Bank will not review or interpret the trust agreement or police the application of trust funds.⁵

If an irrevocable trust uses the grantor's SSN, signing the Certificate affirms it is a grantor trust under federal tax law and needs no EIN.⁵

The trustees check one authority box on the Certificate: Independent, where any one trustee may act alone, or Joint, with the minimum number of trustees required to sign.⁵

Apple Bank relies on the Certificate on file "until Apple Bank receives a new Certificate of Trust, executed by all of the then-serving Trustees, in which case the new Certificate of Trust will supersede all prior dated Certificate of Trusts."⁵

A successor trustee taking over after the grantor's death files a fresh, notarized Certificate rather than amending the old one.⁵