What to do when a Byline Bank account holder dies

An account in one person's name gives no one else ownership or survivorship, and the terms say that at the owner's death it almost always passes through the owner's estate.¹

A joint account is held with survivorship: a deceased owner's share passes to the remaining owners, and the bank may pay any surviving owner. A deceased owner can be taken off the account's title.¹

When every owner of a Totten trust account has died, the surviving beneficiaries become its owners and are paid once the bank has proof of death and its other documents. With no eligible beneficiary, the account goes to the last owner's estate.¹

After the death of a CD owner who is an individual, Byline waives the early withdrawal penalty when asked.²

Estate settlement and trust administration, with Byline as executor, trustee or agent for one^{3, 4, 5}

The bank may freeze or delay transactions, or hold funds while it looks into them, when it gets conflicting information or instructions about who owns or controls an account.¹

An agent under a power of attorney may keep acting on the account until the bank has written notice or actual knowledge of an owner's death and a reasonable chance to act on it.¹

The bank may use money in an owner's accounts to pay a debt the owner owes it, and may take a debt of any joint owner from a joint account, but not from an IRA or HSA.¹

The deposit terms are governed by federal law and, where federal law does not apply, by Illinois law.¹

A checking or money market account turns dormant after a year without activity, a savings account after two, and a dormant account is charged $5.00 a month. After years without activity or contact the funds may be sent to the state, and a claim is then made to the state.¹

The terms' binding arbitration clause reaches claims brought by an owner's estate or by an account's beneficiaries.¹

First Security Trust and Savings Bank merged into Byline on April 1, 2025, and its accounts became Byline accounts on April 14, 2025, keeping their account numbers unless the owner was told otherwise. Beneficiaries designated on First Security accounts stayed the same.^{6, 7}