Estate planning and settlement at Jeanne D'Arc CU

Jeanne D'Arc CU offers 17 accounts, each with its own rules for what happens when a member dies. As a membership-based credit union, Jeanne D'Arc CU membership open to anyone who lives, works, or attends school in Middlesex or Essex counties (Massachusetts); the Massachusetts cities/towns of Fitchburg, Leominster, Harvard, Lunenburg, or Lancaster; or Hillsborough or Rockingham counties (New Hampshire). Completing payment of one $5 share in a Membership account is a condition of admission to membership. Real estate mortgages available on properties within a 100-mile radius of Lowell or anywhere in Massachusetts. Nine locations on the Locations + ATMs page: Headquarters at 1 Tremont Place, Lowell; the Lowell branch at 581 Merrimack Street (the address of record with NCUA); Dracut Bridge St (1595 Bridge Street) and Dracut Lakeview Ave (1345 Lakeview Ave); Chelmsford (245 Chelmsford Street); Tyngsboro (150 Westford Road, Flints Corner Plaza); Methuen (380 Merrimack Street, Suite 1A); Westford (196 Littleton Road); and Nashua, NH (102 Spit Brook Road). Which side of the state line the account was opened on decides the death-beneficiary instrument available on it. Some transfer automatically to a named beneficiary, others can be held in a trust, and a few may require probate if no plan is in place.

Account holders can update their beneficiary designations at Jeanne D'Arc CU in branch and by phone. Accounts can also be retitled into a trust to keep them out of probate entirely.