How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Bank of the Sierra

Deposit accounts (checking, savings, money market and CDs) take a Payable on Death (POD) payee, or an informal Totten Trust (in-trust-for) titling. Both are described in the Comprehensive Deposit Disclosure.¹

The deposit agreement treats a Totten Trust (informal in-trust-for) account like a POD designation rather than a funded trust: a beneficiary must survive all account owners, and surviving beneficiaries take equal shares unless the bank's records expressly say otherwise.¹

An IRA takes its beneficiaries on IRA beneficiary designation paperwork, naming primary and contingent beneficiaries. An IRA cannot be POD-designated.²

An HSA beneficiary is designated at account opening and is separate from POD and trust designations.²

A trust can be named as a POD payee. It requires a Certification of Trust or the trust agreement.²

Multiple surviving POD payees share equally unless an unequal split is expressly reflected in the bank's records, so an unequal split has to be written into the bank's records.¹

For payable-on-death accounts. Completed by the account owner, on the account signature card in a branch or on paperwork the bank provides. Sent by the institution on request.²

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For IRAs. Completed by the account owner, with the banker. Provided at a branch.²

A POD payee must survive the death of all account owners to take anything; a payee who dies before the last owner takes nothing.¹

The bank reserves the right to refuse some forms of ownership on any or all accounts. The same clause warns that the capacity an account is held in "may have significant legal, tax, and estate planning consequences."¹

POD beneficiary designations cannot be added or changed through online banking. They take a branch visit or paper forms provided by Bank of the Sierra.²

Bank of the Sierra accepts both revocable and irrevocable trusts for deposit accounts.²

An IRA cannot be retitled to a trust.²

An HSA cannot be retitled to a trust.²

Completed by the trustees. Sent by the institution on request.²

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Under the Trust & Other Fiduciary Accounts clause, legal title is held by the signing trustees, who agree, individually and jointly and severally, to indemnify, defend and hold the bank harmless for their handling of the account.¹

The bank may require documentation of the trust agreement or a certification of trust, plus any court orders or amendments. For formal trust accounts, "you may be asked to provide a copy of relevant pages of the trust agreement, execute a trustee's certification of trust, or other documents."¹

"We will not be responsible for monitoring a trustee or other fiduciary's management of the account," and the bank will not monitor items deposited to or drawn against a fiduciary account "to determine whether a trustee or fiduciary is acting consistently with or in breach of any fiduciary duty."¹

An existing deposit account can be retitled to the trust without closing and reopening, provided the same SSN or EIN is used.²

There is no online trust-titling option; the banker reviews the trust documents in the branch.²