How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Carter Bank

Deposit accounts (checking, savings, money market and CDs) take a Payable on Death (POD) designation.¹

An IRA takes its beneficiaries through the IRA beneficiary designation.¹

A trust can be named as POD beneficiary. The owner brings the Certification of Trust so the bank records the trust name and date exactly as they appear in the instrument.¹

An IRA names primary and contingent beneficiaries and the percentage each receives.¹

For a deposit account, the owner signs the updated signature card or account record.¹

For an IRA, the owner signs the IRA beneficiary designation. A change by a married account holder may require spousal consent.¹

For payable-on-death accounts. Sent by the institution on request.¹

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For IRAs. Sent by the institution on request.¹

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Under Section 6.e of the Terms & Conditions, a POD beneficiary cannot withdraw unless the owner has died and the beneficiary is then living. The owner keeps the right to change beneficiaries, change the account type and withdraw all of the funds at any time.²

Section 6 of the Terms & Conditions provides that the forms of ownership and beneficiary designation are governed by the statutes of the state in which the account was initially created, Virginia or North Carolina.²

Section 6.c of the Terms & Conditions offers a Personal Agency Account: the owner may name an agent to make withdrawals and may elect to have that authority continue despite the owner's later incapacity. Without that election, the agent's authority ends when the owner becomes incapacitated.²

The designation takes effect when the bank records it on the account.¹

Checking, savings, money market and CD accounts can be titled to a revocable or irrevocable trust.¹

IRAs cannot be retitled to a trust.¹

Sent by the institution on request.¹

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Section 28 of the Terms & Conditions provides that an account "may be opened and maintained by a person or persons named as a trustee under a written trust agreement, or as executors, administrators, or conservators under court orders."²

Carter Bank does not run a trust department and will not serve as trustee or corporate co-trustee. The trustee named in the instrument, an individual or an outside trust company, opens and operates the account.¹

Section 28 states that by opening the account the bank is not acting as trustee and does not undertake any obligation to monitor or enforce the terms of the trust, and that it is not responsible for a fiduciary's misuse of funds.²

The bank titles the account to the trust as written. It does not draft or review the trust.¹

Existing accounts are usually retitled in place rather than closed and reopened when the taxpayer ID does not change.¹

Trust accounts are completed at a branch or by mail. The bank's FAQ describes the online application as a path for a personal primary applicant, who can add a joint owner, with no trustee or fiduciary ownership path.³

A CD generally has to be retitled at the branch rather than reissued.⁴