Estate planning options at Truist
The key to protecting your Truist accounts is making sure each one has a transfer mechanism in place—either a beneficiary designation. Without one, the account goes through probate, adding time, cost, and court involvement for your family.
Truist has 13 accounts with different estate transfer rules. Here is how beneficiary designations, trust ownership, and probate apply to each one.
Beneficiary designation is not available for investment accounts at Truist.
What Truist says about beneficiaries and trusts
Each section is Truist's own statement, with the document it comes from numbered under Sources.
Which accounts take a beneficiary2
- Payable-on-death account
Truist records may describe a POD or ITF account as "payable on death", "in trust for", "as trustee for", "ATF", "transfer on death", "TOD", or "Totten Trust".1
- Investment account
On an Asset Management Account, a TOD designation made with the broker, Truist Investment Services, takes precedence over POD instructions given to the bank that differ from it, or where no POD designation was made.1
How many beneficiaries, and how shares are split
- Payable-on-death account
Multiple surviving POD or ITF beneficiaries take in equal and undivided shares. A designation in an amount or percentage other than equally is only a request, which Truist may honor in its sole discretion.1
What a designation takes to be effective
- Payable-on-death account
Any one owner of a POD or ITF account can add or remove a beneficiary.1
What Truist's agreement says about beneficiaries4
- What the owner keeps while living
During the owner's lifetime the funds are the owner's property, and any one owner can close the account, change the account type or ownership, or withdraw all or part of the balance.1
- When a designation takes effect
A beneficiary change is effective only upon a change to the signature card, and Truist may rely solely on the signature card to determine the proper beneficiary.1
- No beneficiary survives
If no beneficiary survives the last owner, the funds are payable to the last owner's estate.1
- Which state governs the account
A POD or ITF account is governed by the applicable laws of the state in which the account is opened.1
What Truist says about trust accounts2
- Whether a new account is opened
Truist changes account ownership by closing the account and opening a new one to reflect the ownership designation. A requested change is not effective until Truist accepts it and has had a reasonable time to act.1
- Review of the trust document
Under the agreement's written trust account type, Truist is not obligated to read or interpret trust documents, has no duty to monitor the trustee's acts, and assumes no liability for the administration of the trust.1
Accounts handled elsewhere1
- Truist Investment Services, Inc.
TOD designations on the brokerage side of an Asset Management Account1
Not in Truist's published guidance3
- What the owner provides to name a beneficiary
- A beneficiary designation form, for deposit accounts
- Beneficiary-change channel, for deposit accounts
Sources2
- 1.Bank Services Agreement and Privacy Notice, R-BSA-1.0 | 01/16/2026
- 2.Truist Wealth trusts page, "How to set up a trust account"
Sources
Data sourced from Truist primary sources (16 pages reviewed). How we research.
Download these Truist instructions
A printable PDF with the steps, required documents, and contact details, verified against Truist primary sources. Bring it to the branch or keep it beside the phone.
Truist estate support
Truist Wealth estate settlement
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