What to do when a First Financial Bank account holder dies

In a branch. Bring government-issued photo ID and the full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and address for each beneficiary, plus the percentage split if you name more than one. The banker records the P.O.D. designation by setting the account type on the Uniform Single-Party or Multiple-Party Account Selection Form. Texas is a community property state, so spousal consent may be required. Traditional and Roth IRAs use a separate beneficiary designation form -- the deposit-account P.O.D. election does not carry over. First Financial does not offer online beneficiary management.

Visit the branch that holds the accounts with your full trust agreement or a Certification of Trust, government-issued ID for each trustee, and the trust tax identification number (a revocable trust generally uses the grantor's Social Security number). The banker retitles the account as a Trust Account on the account selection form, with the trustees as the parties. Revoke any existing P.O.D. designation on an account you retitle -- a trust account passes to the beneficiary named on it when the last surviving trustee dies, outside the trustee's estate. Traditional and Roth IRAs cannot be retitled to a trust; name the trust as beneficiary instead. Mortgages and home equity loans are debts, not assets, and are not retitled.

Notify the branch or the Customer Care Center at 855-660-5862 promptly. Under the Death or Incompetence clause of the account agreement, First Financial keeps honoring checks, items, and instructions until it knows of the death and has had a reasonable opportunity to act, and it may pay checks drawn on or before the date of death for up to ten days afterward unless someone claiming an interest in the account orders a stop payment. After that, the account selection on file controls: P.O.D. beneficiaries and surviving parties present a certified death certificate and photo ID; an estate account requires Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration; a successor trustee presents the trust agreement. If survivors or beneficiaries make competing claims, the bank may place an administrative hold on the funds until the dispute is resolved.

Yes. First Financial Trust & Asset Management Company, the bank's trust company, has managed trusts and estates since 1927 and has the legal authority to serve as executor or co-executor. It handles estate administration, trust management, investment management, real estate management, and oil and gas management, and operates nine trust offices across Texas -- Abilene, Beaumont, Bryan/College Station, Fort Worth, Houston, Odessa, San Angelo, Stephenville, and Sweetwater. The trust company converted from a national charter to a Texas state charter on April 22, 2024, alongside the bank. If a First Financial trust office already administers the account, route a death notice there rather than to the branch.