What to do when a PlainsCapital account holder dies
Contact PlainsCapital's The Private Bank - Trust & Estate Services (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts) — 9-step process, 7 required documents, and a clean p.o.d. or survivorship claim is usually settled at the branch once the certified death certificate and id are presented. estate claims track the probate court: letters typically take several weeks in texas, and the small estate affidavit route requires a judge's approval before the bank can pay. contested claims can be frozen or interpleaded indefinitely.
PlainsCapital Bank Customer Service
Phone866-762-8392
Mailing Address
PlainsCapital Bank, 325 N. Saint Paul St., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201
Debit Card Activation/PIN (24/7)
Fraud Department
PrimeLending (main)
PrimeLending Loan Servicing
HilltopSecurities (wealth management / HQ)
WebsiteLearn more→
The Private Bank - Trust & Estate Services (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts)
Phone214-252-4030
Austin
Dallas
Fort Worth
Houston & Coastal Bend
Lubbock
McAllen
WebsiteLearn more→
PlainsCapital Bank Customer Service (deposit death claims are settled through the branch network; no separate claims desk is published)
Phone866-762-8392
Mailing Address
PlainsCapital Bank, 325 N. Saint Paul St., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201
PrimeLending Loan Servicing (mortgage death claims)
HilltopSecurities (brokerage death claims)
WebsiteNotify online→
Verified Jul 2026
When a PlainsCapital account holder passes away, the next step depends on how the accounts were set up. Accounts with beneficiary designations or trust ownership transfer outside of probate. Accounts titled solely in the deceased's name require the estate's legal representative to work with PlainsCapital's The Private Bank - Trust & Estate Services (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts) (866-762-8392) to access and distribute the funds.
PlainsCapital offers an online claims portal that makes the initial filing process more straightforward. Survivors can also initiate claims by phone or by mailing documentation directly.
Deposit, investment & retirement accounts
The death claim process at PlainsCapital works as follows:
Filing a claim
1
Notify PlainsCapital Bank promptly -- call 866-762-8392 (Mon-Fri 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM CT; Sat 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM CT) or go to a Texas branch. Under the deposit agreement the bank's authority to pay items is not revoked until it has actual knowledge of the death and a reasonable opportunity to act on it, and even then it may keep paying or certifying checks drawn on or before the date of death for TEN (10) DAYS after the death unless someone claiming an interest in the account orders a stop payment
2
Expect direct deposits to be reversed: the agreement authorizes the bank to freeze, offset, refuse, and reverse deposits and transactions -- including government and retirement benefit payments payable to the deceased -- and to recover them from the account
3
Provide the decedent's name, date of death, and account numbers if you have them, and submit a certified copy of the death certificate
4
What you file next is decided entirely by how the Signature Card titled the account:
- P.O.D. account: the surviving named payee presents a certified death certificate and photo ID; funds pass to the payees, outside the will
- Multiple-party account WITH right of survivorship: the surviving party presents the death certificate and the account continues in their name
- Multiple-party account WITHOUT right of survivorship, or a single-party account with no P.O.D. payee: the funds pass through the estate, and the bank pays the personal representative on Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration
- Community property account (Texas, married couples): ownership at death is determined by Texas community property law and may be affected by the will -- the agreement itself tells account holders to consult an attorney on this point
- Informal Trust Account ("in trust for"): on the death of the last surviving trustee, ownership passes to the named beneficiary and the account is not part of the trustee's estate
- Account titled to a revocable living trust: the successor trustee presents the death certificate plus the trust instrument or Certification of Trust and their own ID
5
If the estate must go through the Texas courts, the practical routes are:
- Independent administration -- the standard Texas path; the personal representative presents Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without one)
- Texas small estate affidavit (Tex. Est. Code ch. 205) -- INTESTATE estates only, where 30 days have passed since death, no personal representative petition is pending or granted, and the estate assets excluding homestead and exempt property do not exceed $75,000. It must be sworn by every capable distributee plus two disinterested witnesses, filed with and APPROVED BY the probate court, and delivered to the bank as a clerk-certified copy -- an unfiled affidavit will not release funds. Texas has no statewide form; the county probate court supplies its own
- Note the limits of an Affidavit of Heirship: in Texas it is a real-property title device recorded in the county deed records (useful for the home and the mortgage successor-in-interest package), not an instrument that compels a bank to release deposit funds
6
Expect a hold if the claim is contested. The agreement lets the bank freeze all or part of the account, require written agreement of all signatories, close the account and issue a check payable jointly to the claimants, or interplead the funds into court when it faces conflicting or rival claims
7
Ask whether the bank intends to exercise setoff. The agreement grants it a security interest in the accounts and the right to apply balances -- individual or joint -- against any debt the account owner owes the bank, without prior notice
8
Route the other Hilltop subsidiaries separately; there is no holding-company estate desk:
- Mortgage: check the decedent's last statement for the servicer. If PrimeLending, call 800-597-0233 or email prime-servicing@primelending.com and request the Successor in Interest package
- Brokerage / wealth management: HilltopSecurities, 214-953-4000 or 833-445-5586 (717 N. Harwood St., Suite 3400, Dallas, TX 75201). TOD registration and account retitling paperwork there usually requires a Medallion Signature Guarantee
- An old National Lloyds insurance policy: Hilltop sold that business in 2020; it is now National Summit Insurance Company and is not reachable through Hilltop or PlainsCapital
9
Do not let accounts go quiet: PlainsCapital escheats abandoned deposit accounts to the Texas Comptroller after three years (safe deposit box contents after five), and an escheated traditional IRA may be treated as a designated distribution subject to federal withholding
Required Documents
- Certified death certificate (at least one original)
- Government-issued photo ID for the P.O.D. payee, surviving owner, successor trustee, or personal representative
- Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, where the account passes through the estate
- Court-approved, clerk-certified Texas small estate affidavit (Tex. Est. Code ch. 205), where the estate qualifies -- intestate, 30 days elapsed, no pending personal representative, assets excluding homestead and exempt property under $75,000
- Trust agreement or Certification of Trust plus successor trustee ID, where the account is titled to a trust
- Account numbers for the decedent's PlainsCapital accounts, if known
- The decedent's most recent mortgage statement, if a PrimeLending-originated loan is involved (to identify the current servicer)
What to know at this institution
PlainsCapital does not publish a standalone death-claim form or a dedicated claims phone line; the deposit-account customer service line (866-762-8392) and the branch network are the intake, and the governing rules live in the PlainsCapital Bank Consumer Deposit Account Agreement (January 2026 edition). The estate-relevant clauses are: the death-or-incompetence clause (authority survives until actual knowledge plus a reasonable opportunity to act; ten additional days of paying checks dated on or before the death); the direct-deposit reversal and setoff clauses; the conflicting-claims clause (freeze, all-signatory approval, closure with a joint check, or interpleader); and the Signature Card ownership menu that decides everything. For a trust or estate that the bank itself administers, The Private Bank's Trust & Estate Services team (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts) is reachable at the regional numbers below and at PrivateBank@plainscapital.com.
Mortgage and home lending
Mortgages and home equity loans are liabilities, not assets. They do not have beneficiaries and cannot be retitled to a trust. When a borrower dies, the loan obligation transfers with the property to whoever inherits it. Under the federal Garn-St. Germain Act, the lender cannot accelerate the loan or call it due when the property transfers to a surviving spouse, child, or the borrower’s revocable trust.
1
Find the deceased borrower's most recent mortgage statement and confirm who services the loan today -- PrimeLending sells most of its originations, so the servicer named on the statement controls the process
2
If PrimeLending is the servicer, call its servicing team at 800-597-0233 or email prime-servicing@primelending.com (portal: https://loanservicing.primelending.com); for questions about the origination relationship, PrimeLending's main line is 800-317-7463
3
Provide the deceased borrower's full legal name, Social Security number, and loan number, and submit a certified copy of the death certificate
4
Request the Successor in Interest documentation package and return it with proof of your ownership interest in the property. In Texas, the usual proofs are:
- A probated will plus Letters Testamentary, or Letters of Administration
- For an intestate Texas estate, a recorded Affidavit of Heirship filed in the deed records of the county where the property sits (the customary Texas device for establishing heirs' title to real property outside probate)
- A recorded deed transferring the property, or the trust instrument if the home was titled to a revocable trust
5
Once confirmed as a Successor in Interest under CFPB Regulation X (12 C.F.R. 1024.31), you are treated as a borrower for servicing purposes and can request payoff figures, apply for loss mitigation, assume, refinance, or sell
6
Keep making the monthly payment during the review -- successor-in-interest confirmation does not pause the loan, and a default during the review can trigger foreclosure the Garn-St. Germain protections do not cure
Required Documents
- Certified copy of the death certificate
- Government-issued photo ID for the heir or personal representative
- Completed Successor in Interest documentation package (obtained from the servicer)
- Proof of ownership interest: probated will, Letters Testamentary or of Administration, recorded Texas Affidavit of Heirship, recorded deed, or trust instrument
- Marriage certificate (if surviving spouse)
- The most recent mortgage statement (to identify the current servicer and loan number)
Claims Contact
Phone: 800-597-0233
Email: prime-servicing@primelending.com
Online Portal →PrimeLending, 18111 Preston Road, Suite 900, Dallas, TX 75252
What to know at this institution
PrimeLending remains a Hilltop subsidiary (verified 2026-07-12 against Hilltop's Q1 2026 results and news page) -- no sale or wind-down. Servicing line 800-597-0233 and the prime-servicing@primelending.com inbox are published by PrimeLending; the corporate address 18111 Preston Road, Suite 900, Dallas, TX 75252 is from primelending.com/about-us/contact. Garn-St. Germain (12 U.S.C. 1701j-3) bars a due-on-sale call for a transfer to a relative on death, to a spouse or child, to a surviving joint tenant, or into the borrower's revocable trust.
Prepare your letter of instruction to PlainsCapital
PlainsCapital accepts a claimant-drafted letter of instruction. We draft it for you — addressed to PlainsCapital's verified claims department, with the documents it requires enclosed.
Build your letter of instructionExpected timelines at PlainsCapital: A clean P.O.D. or survivorship claim is usually settled at the branch once the certified death certificate and ID are presented. Estate claims track the probate court: Letters typically take several weeks in Texas, and the small estate affidavit route requires a judge's approval before the bank can pay. Contested claims can be frozen or interpleaded indefinitely. Delays are almost always caused by incomplete paperwork—gathering all required documents before filing the initial claim helps avoid back-and-forth.
PlainsCapital requires several documents to process a claim, including Certified death certificate (at least one original), Government-issued photo ID for the P.O.D. payee, surviving owner, successor trustee, or personal representative, and Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, where the account passes through the estate, and additional documentation depending on the account type. Certified copies are typically needed—photocopies are generally not accepted for death certificates or court documents.
Frequently asked questions
No. Hilltop Holdings is a holding company; it does not hold consumer accounts and it runs no consolidated estate desk. Each subsidiary has its own process. PlainsCapital Bank deposits, CDs, and IRAs: call 866-762-8392 and settle the claim at a Texas branch. PrimeLending mortgage: check the decedent's most recent statement first, because PrimeLending sells most of its originations into the secondary market -- if PrimeLending is still the servicer, call 800-597-0233 or email prime-servicing@primelending.com and ask for the Successor in Interest package; if the loan was transferred, the new servicer runs the process. HilltopSecurities brokerage: 214-953-4000. Each one independently wants a certified death certificate and proof of your authority. All three subsidiaries were still active as of Hilltop's Q1 2026 reporting; PrimeLending has not been sold. An old National Lloyds insurance policy is the exception -- Hilltop sold that business in 2020 and it is now National Summit Insurance Company, unreachable through Hilltop.
Ten days. The PlainsCapital Bank Consumer Deposit Account Agreement says the bank's authority to accept, pay, collect, or close an account is not revoked by death until it has actual knowledge of the death and a reasonable opportunity to act on it -- and that even with that knowledge, it may for ten (10) days after the date of death pay or certify checks drawn on or before that date, unless a person claiming an interest in the account orders a stop payment. Practical consequence for an executor: report the death promptly, and if checks written before death should not clear, place a stop payment rather than assuming the death itself stops them. Separately, the agreement lets the bank reverse deposits payable to the deceased, so Social Security or pension payments that post after the date of death will typically be clawed back.
Yes, in the ordinary case. The Consumer Deposit Account Agreement lists "the re-titling of a Time Deposit account due to transfer of ownership into a living trust held within the Bank" among the exceptions to the early withdrawal penalty, alongside the death or judicial determination of incompetence of a time deposit owner. So a CD can generally be retitled into your living trust mid-term without breaking the term. Ask the banker to process it as a retitling under that exception rather than closing the CD and opening a new one, which would reset the term and the rate. The same exception list also means an inherited IRA CD can typically be paid to the beneficiary or the estate at death without the term penalty.
The account paperwork. The Consumer Deposit Account Agreement states, in capital letters, that the type of account you select may determine how your property passes at your death and that YOUR WILL MAY NOT CONTROL the disposition of funds in some of these accounts. Ownership is set by the Signature Card you sign: single-party with a P.O.D. payee, multiple-party with or without right of survivorship, a Texas community property account (married couples only, and only if noted on the card), or an informal Trust Account. Two traps that cost Texas families money: a convenience signer is not an heir -- the agreement says the convenience signer owns the account at your death only if they are also named a P.O.D. payee or Trust Account beneficiary; and a stale P.O.D. payee still takes ahead of a newer will or trust. Ask a banker to read you the current Signature Card title on each account, then fix it there.
Only in a narrow lane, and only after a judge signs off. A Texas small estate affidavit (Tex. Est. Code ch. 205) is available only for an INTESTATE estate, only once 30 days have passed since the death, only where no petition for a personal representative is pending or granted, and only where the estate assets excluding homestead and exempt property do not exceed $75,000. It must be sworn by every capable distributee plus two disinterested witnesses, filed with the probate court, and APPROVED by the judge -- what you hand the bank is a clerk-certified copy of the approved affidavit, not a notarized form you printed. Texas publishes no statewide form; the county probate court supplies its own. Above that line, or with a will, the normal Texas route is independent administration, and the bank pays on Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration. And do not confuse this with an Affidavit of Heirship: in Texas that is a real-property title device recorded in the deed records -- useful for the house and for the mortgage servicer's successor-in-interest package, not a way to make a bank release deposits.
PlainsCapital's PlainsCapital Bank Customer Service (deposit death claims are settled through the branch network; no separate claims desk is published) can be reached by phone at 866-762-8392 for questions throughout the claims process.
If the deceased held multiple PlainsCapital accounts, each may require a separate claim or have different documentation requirements. The The Private Bank - Trust & Estate Services (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts) can confirm which accounts require individual attention and which can be processed together.
Sources
Data sourced from PlainsCapital primary sources (15 pages reviewed). How we research.
PlainsCapital Bank Customer Service
Phone866-762-8392
Mailing Address
PlainsCapital Bank, 325 N. Saint Paul St., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201
Debit Card Activation/PIN (24/7)
Fraud Department
PrimeLending (main)
PrimeLending Loan Servicing
HilltopSecurities (wealth management / HQ)
WebsiteLearn more→
The Private Bank - Trust & Estate Services (Estate Administration; Living & Testamentary Trusts)
Phone214-252-4030
Austin
Dallas
Fort Worth
Houston & Coastal Bend
Lubbock
McAllen
WebsiteLearn more→
PlainsCapital Bank Customer Service (deposit death claims are settled through the branch network; no separate claims desk is published)
Phone866-762-8392
Mailing Address
PlainsCapital Bank, 325 N. Saint Paul St., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201
PrimeLending Loan Servicing (mortgage death claims)
HilltopSecurities (brokerage death claims)
WebsiteNotify online→
Verified Jul 2026
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