How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Flagstar Bank

Checking, savings, money market and CD accounts take a payable-on-death designation.¹

Flagstar's guidance states that naming a beneficiary is not required, but that it can save time for the family and keep the account out of probate.¹

A Traditional IRA or Roth IRA takes an IRA beneficiary designation, which is a separate custodial designation.¹

A Coverdell account takes the IRA beneficiary designation, which is a separate custodial designation.¹

Where two or more payees are named, the account belongs to those who survive all the owners, in equal shares without right of survivorship among them.²

A payable-on-death payee has no right to withdraw while any account owner is living. Flagstar's deposit agreement states the account belongs to the parties during their lifetimes and to the payee or payees on the death of all parties.²

Naming a payable-on-death payee does not override a joint owner: on the death of one of several owners the survivors keep their proportionate shares first, and the payees take only after the last owner dies.²

Tax reporting on a multiple-owner account goes out under the Social Security number of the party named first in the account title, which does not change who owns the money.²

Flagstar's deposit agreement states that joint, in-trust-for, or payable-on-death accounts opened in New Jersey after May 28, 1980 are governed by the New Jersey Multiple Party Deposit Account Act.²

Flagstar's deposit agreement states that an account may not be pledged, assigned, or transferred to another person without the bank's written consent, and that the change of ownership must be reflected in the account title in the bank's records.²

To move a mortgaged home into the trust, the deed and the trust documents are sent separately to Flagstar's mortgage servicing channel, which is where Flagstar handles a transfer of ownership into a trust.³

Completed by the settlor or grantor, a trustee, or an attorney for either. Available to download.^{4, 5}

Available to download.⁶

The Certification of Trust Agreement is issued in the name of Flagstar Bank, N.A. and is signed under a declaration that its contents are true and correct. The form carries no notary block.⁴

The certification states that Flagstar may rely on it, and that Flagstar is not required to ask whether the trust has since been amended or revoked or whether the named trustees still serve.⁴

The signer indemnifies the bank if any statement in the certification turns out to be false or incomplete, and agrees to notify Flagstar of any later amendment or revocation.⁴

California trusts use Flagstar's separate California version of the Certification of Trust Agreement.⁶

On Flagstar's certification, Michigan adds agent-for-trustee and agent-for-settlor options for who is signing.⁴

Transfers of ownership of a mortgaged home into a trust³

Trust and estate advisory work, within the Private Bank⁷