Estate planning options at UNIFY

A beneficiary designation for a share certificate is made separately from the beneficiary or POD designations on other accounts; those designations do not carry over to a certificate.¹

A POD designation does not apply to IRAs or other accounts governed by a separate account agreement and beneficiary designation. IRA beneficiaries are named on the IRA itself.^{1, 2}

Under CommunityAmerica's Membership and Account Agreement, when more than one POD beneficiary is designated, each is entitled to an equal share of the account on the death of the last account owner.¹

A beneficiary change on a joint or multiple party account requires written notice from all owners.¹

Any owner may change any beneficiary designation by written notice to CommunityAmerica on a form it approves.¹

Under CommunityAmerica's agreement, a POD beneficiary who dies before the last account owner drops out in favor of the others; that beneficiary's interest lapses.¹

CommunityAmerica does not update a POD designation when a marriage is dissolved or annulled. It is not liable for a payment to a former spouse unless told before payment, by court order or by operation of law, to remove that spouse.¹

If CommunityAmerica needs legal or other professional advice to review documents a POD beneficiary's representative or claimant submits, it may deduct those costs, including reasonable attorney fees, from the account.¹

Under the UNIFY Membership Booklet, if more than one POD beneficiary survives the last account owner, those beneficiaries own the account jointly without rights of survivorship.²

Under CommunityAmerica's interim agreement, an account originally under the UNIFY Membership and Account Agreement stays governed by the UNIFY agreement until the banking systems are integrated and members are given notice of a new agreement.¹

Telling a person or organization that it is named as a POD beneficiary is the member's responsibility, not CommunityAmerica's.¹

Shares may be issued in a revocable or an irrevocable trust, and either kind of trust must state the name of the beneficiary.³

For shares held in a revocable trust, the settlor must be a CommunityAmerica member in his or her own right. For an irrevocable trust, either the settlor or the beneficiary must be a member.³

A trust may also join as a member in its own right if all settlors, beneficiaries and trustees are within the credit union's field of membership.³

On a trust-owned account, CommunityAmerica may follow the direction of any one trustee.¹

Trust accounts opened at UNIFY were opened on UNIFY's Certification of Trust, which trustees signed under penalty of perjury before a notary and which told them not to provide a copy of the trust.⁴

CommunityAmerica may refuse a fiduciary's instruction it believes could expose it to claims, or require indemnity or a bond.¹