How to designate beneficiaries at Barclays US

The terms treat each payable-on-death account separately, so a beneficiary added to a savings account does not carry over to a CD.¹

A trust cannot be a beneficiary. The beneficiary record requires an individual's date of birth and Social Security number, and the deposit Terms and Conditions provide no trust beneficiary option.^{2, 1}

Up to four beneficiaries can be named per account, and the owner sets each one's percentage. Left even, the allocations split equally: four beneficiaries take 25% each.²

If the percentages total less than 100%, each beneficiary receives the named percentage and the remainder goes to the owner's estate. If they total more than 100%, each share is pro-rated against the total.¹

When exactly three beneficiaries are named, Barclays adds 1/10 of 1% to the first beneficiary listed, because thirds do not divide evenly.¹

Spousal consent is required in the nine community property states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin) if a spouse is not named as the sole primary beneficiary.¹

Beneficiaries take nothing until the last owner dies: "the account belongs to you during your lifetime and your beneficiaries have no interest in or any access to the account until your death (or in the case of a joint account, on the death of the last surviving joint account owner)."¹

Barclays will not tell beneficiaries the account exists. The terms state it has "no obligation to notify any beneficiary of the existence of a payable on death account or the vesting of an interest in such account."¹

A payable-on-death designation overrides the owner's will: the terms state the funds in a POD account "are not governed by your will or inherited by your heirs."¹

Barclays reserves the right to pay a POD account "in our sole discretion and subject to our right to set-off and security interest," so a balance the deceased owed Barclays can be netted out before beneficiaries are paid.¹

Barclays US does not offer trust-titled deposit accounts. Its terms define an "Individual Account", a two-person "Joint Account" with right of survivorship and, on Online Savings and CDs, an adult-and-minor account, then state: "Other types of account ownership are not available from us at this time."¹

Accounts are "not negotiable and not transferable, except on our books", and Barclays "may require that changes of ownership of an Account be made by closing the Account and opening a new account in the name of the new owner."¹

The terms recognize a trustee only as an agent on an account someone else owns, who "must be designated as such on our records; otherwise, we will not honor the account instructions of that individual." That lets a trustee operate an account; it does not put the account in the trust.¹

Barclays "reserve[s] the right to review and retain a copy of any power of attorney, agency agreement, trust agreement, court order or other document that has established the agency or other fiduciary relationship."¹