Estate planning at UBS
How to protect 14 UBS accounts — manage beneficiaries in-branch, fund a trust in-branch, and file death claims
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
No dedicated death-claims department. Start with the deceased's UBS Financial Advisor; UBS Client Relations is the fallback. UBS publishes no claims email and instructs clients not to send confidential or account information by email.
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
UBS has 14 investment accounts, each with different rules for what happens when the account holder dies. Of those, 13 can name a trust as beneficiary or be retitled into a trust. The right combination of beneficiary designations and trust ownership can keep the entire portfolio out of probate.
Beneficiary designations at UBS can be managed in branch, by mail, and by phone, typically taking 15-30 minutes to complete; add time for a notary if community-property spousal consent applies. Trust funding is also available, allowing families to retitle brokerage accounts into a trust.
There are two sides to estate planning at UBS: setting things up while you're alive, and the process survivors follow after a death.
Preparing your estate
Beneficiaries and trust funding
How to update beneficiaries in-branch, fund a trust in-branch, and review 14 account types at UBS.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
6-step process, 8 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
If you are married and live in a community or marital property state, very likely yes. The UBS IRA Account Application and Adoption Agreement (form AC-IRA) states that if you are married and live in a community or marital property state, and it lists Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, and your spouse is not named as primary beneficiary of at least 50% of the IRA assets, your spouse must sign the designation. The signature block on that form is immediately followed by a Notary Public signature and seal line, so budget for a notary rather than assuming a signature at the kitchen table will do. Outside those states, UBS does not impose a spousal signature on IRAs, though your employer plan is a different matter.
It goes to your spouse, and failing that, into probate. The UBS IRA Account Application provides that any interest in the IRA not effectively disposed of by your beneficiary designation is paid to your surviving spouse, and if there is no surviving spouse, to your estate. An IRA that lands in your estate loses its non-probate advantage and is administered by your executor. The UBS form also has a specific trap: contingent beneficiaries are named under each primary beneficiary, and for each primary you must check a box saying where that person's share goes if they predecease you. If you leave the box blank, the share goes to the contingents named under that primary, and if there are none, proportionately to the other primaries.
Two things worth knowing. First, on trusts: UBS's US estate planning page states that trust services are provided by third-party banks and trust companies, and that trust investments are not obligations of UBS. UBS Trust Company, N.A. is named as a UBS affiliate in the Agreements and Disclosures, but your Financial Advisor will typically coordinate with a corporate trustee rather than UBS serving as trustee itself. Your UBS trust investment account is opened with the Account Application and Agreement for Trust and Estate Accounts, supported by the trust document or a Trustee Certification, trustee ID, and the trust EIN. Second, on Credit Suisse: UBS completed its acquisition of Credit Suisse AG in 2023, merged the two banks in 2024, and announced in March 2026 that it had completed the migration of all former Credit Suisse clients onto UBS infrastructure globally. A legacy Credit Suisse US account is now a UBS account and is settled through the UBS process described here.
Sources
Data sourced from UBS primary sources (14 pages reviewed). How we research.
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
No dedicated death-claims department. Start with the deceased's UBS Financial Advisor; UBS Client Relations is the fallback. UBS publishes no claims email and instructs clients not to send confidential or account information by email.
UBS Financial Services Inc., Client Relations, PO Box 766, Union City, NJ 07087
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your UBS accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
