Estate planning options at BankPlus
Estate planning for your BankPlus accounts starts with understanding how each one transfers at death. Beneficiary designations bypass probate, but the right approach depends on the account type, your tax situation, and how much control you want over distributions.
BankPlus offers 16 accounts, each with its own transfer rules. The sections below cover how to set up beneficiaries, fund a trust, and which products support each approach.
No beneficiary form at BankPlus
Beneficiary designation is not available for investment accounts at BankPlus.
What BankPlus says about beneficiaries
Each section is BankPlus's own statement, with the document it comes from numbered under Sources.
Which accounts take a beneficiary1
- Payable-on-death account
Under the 2022 agreement, the beneficiaries of a pay-on-death or revocable trust account can withdraw only after every owner who opened it has died, and only if they are alive at that point.1
For Alabama accounts, the 2022 agreement keeps a pay-on-death account out of the owner's estate, and on a joint account with survivorship the beneficiaries wait for the last owner's death.1
How many beneficiaries, and how shares are split
- All accounts
When two or more named beneficiaries survive, the 2022 agreement gives them equal shares unless the bank's account records set other shares.1
What BankPlus's agreement says about beneficiaries6
- Changing or revoking a designation
Whoever opened the account may change the beneficiaries or the type of account at any time, under the 2022 agreement.1
- What the owner keeps while living
The owners keep the right to withdraw any or all of the money while living, and BankPlus says it makes no promise about what a designation achieves beyond deciding whom it pays.1
- Joint accounts
When two or more people open a pay-on-death or revocable trust account together, the 2022 agreement makes them joint owners, with survivorship for Mississippi accounts.1
- A minor as beneficiary
For Mississippi accounts, the bank pays a parent, custodian or guardian in place of the beneficiary where state law requires it.1
- Powers of attorney over a living owner's account
An agent under a power of attorney can act on a BankPlus account only in a form the bank has approved.1
- Which state governs the account
The 2022 agreement applies the law of the state where the account was opened, and its ownership rules are written separately for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi accounts.1
Not in BankPlus's published guidance10
- What the owner provides to name a beneficiary
- A beneficiary designation form
- An online way to name a beneficiary
- Who may be named as beneficiary
- What a designation takes to be effective
- A procedure for holding an account in a trust
- A trust account form
- Which trust documents it accepts
- Terms in its agreements for a trust account
- How long a change takes
Sources1
- 1.First Bank and Trust Transition Guide, Consumer Deposit Account Agreement, published July 2022 for the August 2022 conversion
Sources
(2)·
Data sourced from BankPlus primary sources (27 pages reviewed). How we research.
Download these BankPlus instructions
A printable PDF with the steps, required documents, and contact details, verified against BankPlus primary sources. Bring it to the branch or keep it beside the phone.
BankPlus estate support
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