What to do when a Town & Country FCU account holder dies

Yes. Two Membership Agreement clauses put the credit union ahead of the people you named. The "Pledges" clause states that the credit union's lien on any deposit, and any pledge of an account, must first be satisfied BEFORE the rights of any surviving account owner or account beneficiary become effective. The "Lien & Right of Offset/Enforcement" clause gives Town & Country a statutory and consensual lien on funds in any account in which the borrower has an ownership interest, regardless of the source of the funds, applied in any order it chooses. So a POD designation does not put a share balance beyond the reach of the member's own loans or credit card at the credit union. One carve-out matters: the security interest expressly does not apply to obligations secured by the member's residence, so a mortgage or home equity balance is not offset against the deposits. Ask whether the member carried Loan Protection Plus, which may cancel or reduce a covered loan balance.

Only if it chooses to. The Truth-in-Savings disclosure (https://www.tcfcu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/TIS-0425.pdf) sets an early withdrawal penalty of 90 days of dividends, whether earned or not, and can reduce principal if dividends were already paid out. It then lists the exceptions: "At our option, we may pay the account before maturity without imposing an early withdrawal penalty" when an account owner dies or is determined legally incompetent by a court or other body of competent jurisdiction. That is discretionary language, not a guarantee, so a survivor should request the waiver in writing when presenting the death certificate rather than assume the certificate breaks cleanly.

It depends on which joint form the account uses, and Town & Country offers both. A standard joint account is a "joint tenancy with rights of survivorship": all sums are owned jointly with full right of survivorship, and payment to any survivor discharges the credit union. But the Membership Agreement also describes "Joint Accounts (Tenants in Common Accounts)" — an account owned by two or more parties where, on the death of one party, the remaining parties do NOT receive the benefit of or assets in the account. The decedent's share goes through the estate instead. The agreement encourages owners to state in writing what percentage each contributed. If you are planning around a joint account here, confirm in writing which of the two forms it actually is.

Often, yes. The Membership Agreement is governed by Maine law, and 18-C M.R.S. section 3-1201 (https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/18-C/title18-Csec3-1201.html) requires any person holding a decedent's personal property — including a credit union holding share accounts — to deliver it to a claiming successor 30 days after the death, on presentation of an affidavit stating that the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $40,000 (adjusted for inflation under section 1-108), that 30 days have elapsed, that no personal representative has been appointed or applied for, and that the successor is entitled to the property. Because the figure is inflation-adjusted, a 2025 amendment (PL 2025, c. 76) now requires each county probate court to publish the current adjusted value on its website each year — confirm it with the probate court for the decedent's county before you sign the affidavit. Above that limit you will need Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.