How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Salem Five

Salem Five's payable-on-death account, which it also calls a Totten trust or unwritten trust, is owned by its one or two account holders while they live. When the last of them dies, the bank pays the surviving beneficiaries in equal shares, after any claims the bank has against the account.¹

An IRA names primary and contingent beneficiaries on its application, each with a percentage. The owner can leave the beneficiaries blank and name them later; with none named, the IRA goes to the owner's estate.^{2, 3}

A deposit account can name up to four beneficiaries, and the bank describes them as individuals.⁴

An IRA beneficiary can be a person or an entity.²

Up to four beneficiaries, paid in equal shares among those who survive the last owner.^{1, 4}

Each group of primary or contingent beneficiaries totals 100 percent. With no percentages given, beneficiaries in the group share equally, and contingent beneficiaries take only if no primary beneficiary survives the owner.²

The IRA application has a spousal consent section. A married owner who names someone other than, or besides, the spouse as primary beneficiary is told the spouse should sign it, before witnesses, and the form says to consider consent where the owner or the trust is in a community or marital property state.²

For IRAs. Available to download.^{2, 5}

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For IRAs. Available to download.³

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The account holders own the funds while they live, and any one of them alone can close the account, change its type or withdraw any amount. A beneficiary has no right to the money until every account holder has died.¹

Salem Five does not have to tell the beneficiaries that an owner has died or that the account exists.¹

On an IRA, a beneficiary who dies before the owner drops out, and the remaining beneficiaries' percentages grow in proportion.²

An IRA designation is made on a form the bank provides or accepts and counts only once filed with the bank in the owner's lifetime. Each new designation replaces the earlier ones, and beneficiaries need not agree to a change.²

An account in more than one name is a joint account with survivorship, so when one owner dies the funds are payable to the others.¹

Salem Five may accept a power of attorney as an accommodation, in a form and content it finds acceptable, and keeps honoring the agent until it gets written notice of revocation and has had a reasonable time to act.¹

The account is governed by federal law and the law of the state where it was opened; an account opened online counts as opened in Massachusetts.¹

Completed by the trustees. Available to download.^{6, 7}

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Completed by every named trustee. Available to download.^{6, 8}

The mailed application opens the account under the Social Security number of the grantor or trustee. A trust with its own employer identification number cannot apply that way.^{7, 6}

By the delegation form, all the trustees authorize any one of them to deposit, withdraw, write checks and endorse checks payable to the trust, until they tell the bank otherwise.⁸

The trust application offers a debit or ATM card, and checks on a checking account.⁷

The trust application opens a new checking, savings or CD account in the trust's name.⁷