What to do when a Navigant CU account holder dies
Contact Navigant CU's NCU Investment Solutions (wealth management subsidiary) — 7-step process, 6 required documents, and pod, totten trust, and joint survivorship accounts settle fastest because no court paperwork is needed — but navigant may still require documentation satisfactory to it before releasing a joint account. accounts that depend on probate wait on the rhode island probate court issuing letters. rhode island's voluntary informal administration under r.i. gen. laws 33-24-1 cannot be filed until 30 days after the death.
Contact Center
Navigant Credit Union, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
NCU Investment Solutions (wealth management subsidiary)
NCU Investment Solutions, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
Contact Center (deceased member accounts)
Navigant Credit Union, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
The Contact Center (deceased member accounts) at Navigant CU coordinates account transitions after a member's death. How each account is handled depends on its setup: POD and trust accounts transfer automatically, while solely-owned accounts typically require court authorization through Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Navigant CU provides an online portal for initiating death claims, which can simplify the initial notification and document submission process. Claims can also be started by phone or by mailing the required documents.
Death claim process
To file a claim after an account holder's death, here is what Navigant CU requires:
Filing a claim
- Joint account: Navigant presumes every joint account is a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, not a tenancy in common. The balance belongs to the surviving joint owner(s) and the heirs of the deceased owner have no interest in it — though Navigant may still require documentation satisfactory to it before releasing the funds.
- POD or Totten Trust account: the funds belong to the then-living beneficiaries in equal shares, outside the will. The beneficiary presents a certified death certificate and government-issued photo ID matching the designation. With multiple beneficiaries, Navigant may pay equal shares or issue a single check naming all of them and hand it to any one of them.
- Formal trust account: the successor trustee presents the death certificate along with the trust documentation showing their authority to act.
- Individually owned account with no POD beneficiary and no joint owner: the balance is part of the probate estate, and Navigant will require Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the Rhode Island probate court in the city or town where the decedent lived.
- IRA: settled under the IRA agreement on its own beneficiary distribution paperwork, not through the deposit-account POD designation.
Required Documents
- Certified death certificate
- Government-issued photo ID for the claimant
- Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the Rhode Island probate court, where the account has no POD beneficiary and no surviving joint owner
- Sworn statement of voluntary informal administration filed with the probate court, where the estate qualifies under R.I. Gen. Laws 33-24-1 (entirely personal property, not exceeding $15,000 excluding tangible personal property, and at least 30 days after death)
- Trust documentation showing the successor trustee's authority, for formal trust accounts
- IRA beneficiary distribution paperwork under the IRA agreement, for retirement accounts
What to know at this institution
The single most useful clause in Navigant's account agreement is DEATH OR INCOMPETENCE: Navigant may keep honoring the decedent's checks, items, and instructions until it knows of the death and has had a reasonable opportunity to act, and it may pay or certify checks drawn on or before the date of death for up to ten days after the death unless someone claiming an interest in the account stops payment. That is why prompt notification matters. Two other clauses shape what beneficiaries actually receive: POD and Totten Trust payouts are subject to Navigant's right of set off and any applicable security interest, and where several beneficiaries survive, Navigant may issue one check in all of their names and give it to any one of them rather than splitting the funds. Navigant may also open fiduciary accounts for executors, administrators, and conservators acting under court orders, but its agreement says it is not responsible for a fiduciary's actions, including misuse of funds.
Prepare your letter of instruction to Navigant CU
Navigant CU accepts a claimant-drafted letter of instruction. We draft it for you — addressed to Navigant CU's verified claims department, with the documents it requires enclosed.
Build your letter of instructionHow long the process takes at Navigant CU: POD, Totten Trust, and joint survivorship accounts settle fastest because no court paperwork is needed — but Navigant may still require documentation satisfactory to it before releasing a joint account. Accounts that depend on probate wait on the Rhode Island probate court issuing Letters. Rhode Island's voluntary informal administration under R.I. Gen. Laws 33-24-1 cannot be filed until 30 days after the death. The most common reason for delays is missing or incomplete documentation, so submitting everything upfront is the best way to keep things moving.
Documentation required by Navigant CU includes Certified death certificate, Government-issued photo ID for the claimant, and Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the Rhode Island probate court, where the account has no POD beneficiary and no surviving joint owner, along with additional paperwork that varies by account type. All death certificates and court documents must be certified copies.
Frequently asked questions
Not automatically, and not immediately. Navigant's account agreement (the "Death or Incompetence" clause) says it may continue to honor the decedent's checks, items, and instructions until it both knows of the death and has had a reasonable opportunity to act on that knowledge — and that it may pay or certify checks drawn on or before the date of death for up to ten (10) days after the death, unless someone claiming an interest in the account orders a stop payment. Two things follow. First, notifying Navigant promptly at 401-233-4700 is a term of the account agreement, not a formality. Second, if there are checks or automatic payments you do not want honored, say so explicitly when you call and ask for a stop payment, because silence lets the ten-day window run.
In practice they reach the same result and Navigant's own agreement calls them "similar." A Payable on Death account is a straightforward beneficiary designation on your account. A Totten Trust account is an account you hold in your own name as trustee for someone else — a tentative trust, revocable at will, which you can empty at any time — and Navigant allows it without any formal trust document, provided you give the beneficiary's name and residential address. The differences that matter: Navigant grants Totten Trust accounts only "in limited circumstances" and at its sole discretion, and if more than one trustee is named on a Totten Trust account, Navigant treats the whole account as a joint account and applies its joint-account rules. Under both structures the beneficiaries have no interest in or access to the money while you are alive, the funds are not governed by your will or inherited by your heirs, and Navigant has no obligation to ever tell a beneficiary that the account exists.
Yes. Navigant's account agreement makes payment of the funds in both a Payable on Death account and a Totten Trust account "subject to our right of set off and any applicable security interest." So if the decedent still owed Navigant on a loan, a credit line, or a share-secured borrowing, the credit union can apply the account funds against that debt before paying the beneficiaries. This is worth knowing before you rely on a POD designation as the mechanism that gets cash into a survivor's hands quickly — the survivor may receive less than the balance shown on the last statement. It also cuts the other way for an executor: a POD account is not necessarily beyond Navigant's reach for the decedent's debts to Navigant, even though it is beyond the reach of the probate estate generally.
Not necessarily. Without a POD or Totten Trust beneficiary and without a surviving joint owner, the balance is part of the probate estate and Navigant will require Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the probate court of the Rhode Island city or town where the decedent lived. But Rhode Island has a lighter path for small estates. Under R.I. Gen. Laws 33-24-1, if a Rhode Island resident dies leaving an estate consisting entirely of personal property worth no more than $15,000 — excluding tangible personal property — a surviving spouse, child, grandchild, parent, sibling, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, or any interested party who is of full age, of legal capacity, and a Rhode Island resident may file a sworn statement with the probate court and serve as voluntary administrator. Two conditions apply: at least 30 days must have passed since the death, and no petition for letters testamentary or letters of administration may already have been filed.
Navigant CU's Contact Center (deceased member accounts) can be reached by phone at (401) 233-4700 and fax at (401) 233-4715 for questions throughout the claims process.
Multiple Navigant CU accounts may mean multiple claims. Some account types can be processed together, but others require their own documentation. Check with the Contact Center (deceased member accounts) to confirm what applies.
Sources
Data sourced from Navigant CU primary sources (12 pages reviewed). How we research.
Contact Center
Navigant Credit Union, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
NCU Investment Solutions (wealth management subsidiary)
NCU Investment Solutions, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
Contact Center (deceased member accounts)
Navigant Credit Union, 1005 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917
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