Estate planning at UBS

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.