Estate planning options at Northrim Bank
Estate planning for your Northrim Bank accounts starts with understanding how each one transfers at death. Beneficiary designations and trust retitling both bypass probate, but the right approach depends on the account type, your tax situation, and how much control you want over distributions.
Northrim Bank offers 17 accounts, each with its own transfer rules. The sections below cover how to set up beneficiaries, fund a trust, and which products support each approach.
No beneficiary form at Northrim Bank
Required Documents
- Written trust agreement
- Name, address and date of birth (for each person opening the account)
- Driver's license or other identifying documents (for each person opening the account). Northrim may ask to see them
- Taxpayer identification number for the account. Certified as correct
Beneficiary designation is not available for investment accounts at Northrim Bank.
Beneficiary designation is not available for insurance products at Northrim Bank.
What Northrim Bank says about beneficiaries and trusts
Each section is Northrim Bank's own statement, with the document it comes from numbered under Sources.
Which accounts take a beneficiary2
- Payable-on-death account
The Personal Deposit Account Agreement applies its ownership rules according to "the form of ownership and beneficiary designation, if any, specified on the Account records."1
On a single-party account with a pay-on-death designation, ownership passes at the death of the party to the designated pay-on-death beneficiaries and is not part of the party's estate.1
- Joint account with survivorship
On a multiple-party account with right of survivorship and a pay-on-death designation, ownership passes at the death of the last surviving party to the designated pay-on-death beneficiaries and is not part of that party's estate.1
What a designation takes to be effective
- All accounts
Northrim reserves the right to refuse some forms of ownership and beneficiary designations on any or all of its accounts. It makes no representations as to the appropriateness or effect of a designation, except as it determines to whom it pays the account funds.1
What Northrim Bank's agreement says about beneficiaries2
- Claims against the account
Under the Pledges clause, any pledge of the account must first be satisfied before the rights of any surviving owner or account beneficiary take effect, and the debt may be satisfied with the funds in the account.1
- Joint accounts
An owner cannot be deleted from a personal deposit account except upon the death of one or more of the account owners. Northrim may allow additional owners to be added.1
Which accounts a trust can hold2
- Trust account
Under the Fiduciary Accounts clause of the Personal Deposit Account Agreement, a deposit account "may be opened and maintained by a person or persons named as a trustee under a written trust agreement."1
- Loan
For home equity and real estate loans, Northrim's application checklist asks for a complete copy of the trust when the property is in a trust.2
What Northrim Bank says about trust accounts2
- The trust's tax identification number
Northrim requires a taxpayer identification number (TIN) certified as correct and may refuse to open an account without the appropriate TIN.1
- Review of the trust document
Under the Fiduciary Accounts clause, by merely opening a trust account the bank is not acting as a trustee and takes on no obligation to monitor or enforce the terms of the trust.1
Not in Northrim Bank's published guidance5
- A beneficiary designation form
- What the owner provides to name a beneficiary
- A trust account form
- A procedure for holding an account in a trust
- Conversion of an existing account to a trust
Sources
Data sourced from Northrim Bank primary sources (10 pages reviewed). How we research.
Download these Northrim Bank instructions
Download instructions for the whole estateA printable PDF with the steps, required documents, and contact details — verified against Northrim Bank primary sources. Bring it to the branch or keep it beside the phone.
Northrim Bank estate support
Northrim Bank Call Center
Phone
Toll-free
Fairbanks
Homer
Juneau
Ketchikan
Kodiak
Nome
Palmer
Sitka
Soldotna
Wasilla
Telebanking (Anchorage)
Telebanking (Fairbanks)
Telebanking (Mat-Su)
Telebanking (Southeast)
Telebanking (Toll-Free)
Fax
Mailing address
Website
Estate requests go through general customer service.
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