How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Customers Bank

The bank calls a payable-on-death account a "Revocable Trust Account." It "may be opened without a written trust agreement" and is held in the name of one or more owners for the benefit of the named beneficiaries.¹

IRA and retirement accounts pass by their own beneficiary designation, not by POD, and are handled with the retirement account paperwork.¹

If two or more beneficiaries survive, the bank pays the funds in the account in equal shares.¹

The Agreement makes the signature card part of the account terms, so the titling signed there is what controls at death.¹

The Agreement states the funds "will not be inherited by your heirs or controlled by your will." The designation, not the will, controls that account.¹

Beneficiaries cannot withdraw funds unless all account owners have died and the beneficiary is then living.¹

If the payable-on-death account is owned by more than one person, the joint account rules apply on top of the beneficiary designation.¹

Under the Notices clause, "any notice from you must be in writing," and a notice is effective only when actually received with a reasonable opportunity to act.¹

The online application offers only Individual or Joint ownership: "If you will be the only person to have ownership on this account select Individual. If you want to add a co-owner to the account, select Joint."³

The bank has no trust department. The Account Agreement "does not cover safe deposit boxes, trust services, credit cards and non-deposit investment products," so a trust holds a deposit account titled in its name.¹

The Agreement separates a "Revocable Trust Account," its payable-on-death account that "may be opened without a written trust agreement," from a formal trust "established for someone else under a will or written trust agreement." Say which one you mean.¹

Under the Transfer of Ownership clause, the bank "may require that the account be closed and a new account opened in the name(s) of the new owner(s)." Adding or removing an owner is not the same as adding a beneficiary.¹

On a joint account, the bank may "require all owners' written consent" to a change of ownership.¹

Under the Back-Up Withholding clause: "At the time you open your account, you will provide us with a tax identification number (TIN), which you certify as correct under penalty of perjury."¹

The CD terms bar principal withdrawals before maturity except in circumstances the law permits. A CD has a 10 calendar day grace period after maturity.¹

For an Irrevocable Trust Account the trustee gives an undertaking: "If you die or are replaced as trustee, we will not release any funds until all required legal documents have been delivered to us and all other legal requirements have been met."¹

The set-off clause excludes IRA, Irrevocable Trust and Custodian Accounts from the accounts the bank may take for a debt the owner owes it. A revocable-trust-titled deposit account is not on that list.¹

Servicing of Max Savings accounts⁴