Estate planning and settlement at Navy Federal

How your Navy Federal accounts transfer at death depends on how each one is set up. As a membership-based credit union, Navy Federal branches in 31 states plus the District of Columbia (365 US branches), clustered around military installations rather than spread evenly: Virginia (64), California (54), Texas (40), Florida (35), Maryland (26) and Georgia (26) hold more than half, while Nebraska (Bellevue) and Rhode Island (NS Newport) have one each. No branch in Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, West Virginia or Wyoming -- Anchorage at a 300-mile radius returns 58 locations, every one of them a CO-OP ATM rather than a branch. Navy Federal also operates branches outside the 51 jurisdictions: Guam, Japan, Korea, Italy, Bahrain, Spain, Greece, Singapore, Djibouti and Cuba (Guantanamo Bay); there is no Puerto Rico or US Virgin Islands branch. Many branches are inside military installations and are marked Restricted Access, so an executor without base access may not be able to use one even in a state that appears served. MEMBERSHIP ELIGIBILITY IS A SEPARATE FACT and is nationwide: Navy Federal holds NCUA charter 5536, an active federal charter whose field of membership NCUA classifies as Military; the field of membership covers the Department of Defense, the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard, and veterans and families, and Navy Federal reports 15.3 million members. Eligibility is required to hold an account, and it also governs whether a trust or an estate can hold funds at the credit union. Free CO-OP ATM access is not Navy Federal branch presence. From overseas, the contact center is reachable by collect call at 1-703-255-8837. With 20 account types, the transfer rules vary—getting the right designations in place now prevents delays and court involvement later.

Beneficiary designations at Navy Federal can be managed online, in branch, and by mail. Trust funding is also available, allowing families to retitle accounts into the name of a revocable living trust.