How to designate beneficiaries at Hills Bank

Beneficiaries who outlive every owner share the account equally, with no survivorship between them, unless the account says otherwise.¹

The owners can take out some or all of the money and change the beneficiaries at any time, by a written instruction in a form Hills Bank accepts.¹

When two or more owners open a payable-on-death account together, it works as a joint account with survivorship between them.¹

A beneficiary gains a right to the money only by outliving all of the owners.¹

If no beneficiary outlives the owners, the account becomes an ordinary account of the surviving owner or owners.¹

An asset with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation goes straight to the beneficiary, outside the will and the revocable trust.²

Hills Bank must approve the form of a power of attorney before an agent acts on the account.¹

Hills Bank may rely on what the owner and the owner's attorney tell it about the trustee, the beneficiaries and the trust's terms, and it takes on no duty to act as trustee.¹

The bank keeps honoring the authority a trustee or other fiduciary presented until it receives written notice that the authority changed or ended.¹

Estate planning conversations, and trusts and estates where Hills Bank is named trustee or executor^{3, 4}