Estate planning at Public
How to protect 8 Public accounts — manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust by mail, and file death claims
Member Support
228 Park Ave Suite 97716, New York, NY 10013
Member Support
228 Park Ave Suite 97716, New York, NY 10013
Public offers 8 consumer investment accounts that interact with estate planning in distinct ways. Of those, 7 can name a trust as beneficiary or be retitled into a trust. Understanding the transfer methods available for each account type helps families keep assets out of probate and ensure they pass to the right people.
Public lets account holders update beneficiary designations online and by mail, typically taking 5 minutes (IRA online); 15-20 minutes (brokerage TOD form). Trust funding is also available, allowing families to retitle brokerage accounts into a trust.
Public provides specific procedures for both proactive estate planning and filing claims after a death.
Preparing your estate
Beneficiaries and trust funding
How to manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust by mail, and review 8 account types at Public.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
5-step process, 6 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
Public Investing is an introducing broker. Apex Clearing Corporation is the clearing and carrying firm and holds custody of the cash and securities on a fully disclosed basis, so the transfer of a decedent's holdings is executed by Apex. An executor never contacts Apex directly: Public Member Support at support@public.com is the only channel, and it coordinates the estate account, the third-party distribution form, or the TOD transfer with Apex on your behalf. Treasury accounts are held through Jiko Securities, Inc. and crypto through Zero Hash LLC, so those sit with different entities and are settled separately.
Public publishes no self-service trust-account opening flow, and it does not offer custodial accounts at all. The Public Brokerage Agreement does contemplate a trust-titled account -- it requires the Apex Customer Account Agreement plus the Apex "Certificate of Trust & Investment Powers" (https://public.com/disclosures/apex-certificate-of-trust), which asks for the trust title, the date of trust, the governing state law, whether the trust is revocable and amendable or irrevocable, and identification for every current trustee -- so the registration must be arranged through Member Support at support@public.com. Note that under the agreement Public and Apex may act on the instruction of ANY trustee and deliver assets to any trustee, and have no duty to police the trust's terms; if the trust has co-trustees, ask Member Support to require written consent of all trustees. The path Public actually documents is to name the trust as the TOD beneficiary of the brokerage account instead.
Sources
Data sourced from Public primary sources (26 pages reviewed). How we research.
Member Support
228 Park Ave Suite 97716, New York, NY 10013
Member Support
228 Park Ave Suite 97716, New York, NY 10013
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your Public accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
