What to do when a Mercury account holder dies

A joint account cannot be converted to an individual account. If only one owner is left, that survivor closes the joint account and opens a new individual Mercury Personal account to keep banking with Mercury.¹

Joint owners are joint tenants with right of survivorship, so the funds pass to the surviving owners, and payable-on-death beneficiaries take only on the death of the last owner. A joint account with three or more owners keeps running as long as two owners remain.¹

The Column agreement says the right of survivorship may not be altered by will.²

On proof of death of the last surviving owner, the bank pays the Mercury Personal checking and savings balances to the surviving designated beneficiaries in equal shares, outside probate. No probate documents are needed.²

If no designated beneficiary is living, the funds are paid to the legal representative of the last surviving account owner.²

Mercury business accounts carry no payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation. The deposits follow the entity, and if the entity had a single owner, they follow that owner's estate through probate.¹

Receipt of notice is not acceptance of the successor trustee's authority, and Mercury may disable transfers, card use and distributions while it reviews.²

Mercury says that when the grantor dies the trust typically becomes irrevocable and control passes to the successor trustee named in the trust document. When a trustee dies while the grantor is alive, the grantor can appoint a new trustee or take over the role.¹

Irrevocable trusts sit outside Mercury's standard trust account offering. The bank may re-title the account to an estate or irrevocable trust account, require an EIN, require the successor trustee to accept the agreement, limit features, or close it and remit the funds under the trust's terms.¹

A Mercury Treasury balance is not a deposit. It is held in the business's name at Apex Clearing Corporation and is claimed through the entity and Apex's transfer process.¹

An outstanding IO credit card balance stays with the business entity. The IO card carries no personal guarantee.¹

Working capital loan and venture debt balances stay with the business entity.¹

Holds Mercury deposits; the partner bank's terms govern the account, not Mercury's¹

Holds Mercury deposits; the partner bank's terms govern the account, not Mercury's¹

Issues the Mercury IO card¹

Custodies Mercury Treasury and Mercury Invest¹

For a business account, sweep statements are in the dashboard under Documents and Data, then Statements, then Sweep Statements. They document where the balance sat on the date of death.¹

Until it has notice of the death, the Column agreement says the bank may keep accepting deposits and processing transactions as normal.²

Once Mercury has notice of the death, it may place a hold on the account and refuse all transactions until it verifies the successor's identity.¹

An authorized user's or attorney-in-fact's authority ends at an owner's death, but the bank may keep honoring that person's transactions until it has had a reasonable opportunity to act on written notice of the death.²

The Column agreement gives the bank a right of setoff that survives death: if the account holder owed a debt at death, the bank may exercise setoff or security-interest rights against funds credited to the account after death.²

If certain payments from government entities are deposited after death, the bank may be required to return them to the originator on notice.²

The Column consumer agreement says the estate is responsible for repaying the bank for any tax liability resulting from payment of the account balances to the estate.²

Under the commercial agreement, if the bank releases funds after a death and is then required to pay tax or reclamation claims to a government agency, the estate is responsible for reimbursing it.³