What to do when a Trumark account holder dies

Often, yes. Under 20 Pa.C.S. 3101(b), a Pennsylvania credit union must pay the balance it holds for a deceased member to the spouse, a child, a parent, or a sibling (in that order of preference) when the total the decedent held at that institution does not exceed $20,000, without Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, provided a receipted funeral bill or a licensed funeral director's affidavit of satisfactory payment arrangements is presented. Bring that funeral documentation, a certified death certificate, your photo ID, and proof of relationship to a Trumark branch. Above $20,000 at Trumark, or if the account has no joint owner and no POD beneficiary, the executor needs Letters from the Register of Wills in the decedent's county (Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Bucks, or Montgomery for most Trumark members). A person who takes the payout is still answerable to anyone prejudiced by an improper distribution.

The Death or Incompetence clause of Trumark's Membership and Account Agreement requires prompt notice when any person with a right to withdraw funds dies. Trumark may keep honoring checks, items, and instructions until it both knows of the death and has had a reasonable opportunity to act on that knowledge, and it may pay or certify checks drawn on or before the date of death for up to ten (10) days after the death unless someone claiming an interest in the account orders a stop payment. If outstanding checks should not clear, call the Member Service Center at 1-877-878-6275 and place a stop payment right away. The agreement also gives Trumark contract and statutory lien rights to apply the member's shares and dividends to any debt owed to the credit union, so an outstanding loan or Visa balance can reduce what a beneficiary or the estate ultimately receives. A power of attorney the member signed ends at death.

Yes. Under 72 P.S. 9147, when a deposit is held in the names of two or more persons other than spouses, or in one person's name in trust for another, the credit union must notify the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue within ten days of learning of an owner's death, reporting the balance at the date of death and the surviving owners. No notice is required if the deposit is $300 or less. Pennsylvania then taxes the transfer at the rates published by the Department of Revenue at https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/inheritance-tax: 0 percent to a surviving spouse (and to a parent from a child aged 21 or younger), 4.5 percent to direct descendants and lineal heirs, 12 percent to siblings, and 15 percent to other heirs. A non-spouse joint survivor is taxed on the decedent's fractional share, computed by dividing the balance by the number of joint owners at the date of death. Tax is due upon death, becomes delinquent nine months after the date of death, and a 5 percent discount applies if it is paid within three months.

No. Trumark offers two different things. The tentative trust account (opened in branch, listed under Other Savings Accounts) simply names a beneficiary while you keep full access and control during life; the Membership and Account Agreement treats it as a Revocable Trust Account, meaning the beneficiary cannot withdraw until every person who created the account has died and the beneficiary is then living, and multiple surviving beneficiaries take in equal shares with no survivorship between them. Retitling an account into your funded living trust is different: the trust becomes the account owner, and it requires the complete trust document or a Certificate of Trust, photo ID for each trustee, and the trust EIN. Note that under the agreement's Fiduciary Accounts clause, Trumark is not acting as trustee merely by opening the account and has no duty to monitor or enforce the trust's terms.