Estate planning options at Valley
The key to protecting your Valley accounts is making sure each one has a transfer mechanism in place—either a beneficiary designation or trust ownership. Without one, the account goes through probate, adding time, cost, and court involvement for your family.
Valley has 17 accounts with different estate transfer rules. Here is how beneficiary designations, trust ownership, and probate apply to each one.
No beneficiary form at Valley
- Contact Customer Care at 800-522-4100 or a Valley branch
- Contact Customer Care at 800-522-4100 or a Valley branch
Required Documents
- Name, address and date of birth (for each person opening the account)
- Driver's license or other identifying documents (if Valley asks)
- Contact Customer Care at 800-522-4100 or a Valley branch
What Valley says about beneficiaries and trusts
Each section is Valley's own statement, with the document it comes from numbered under Sources.
What Valley's agreement says about beneficiaries1
- What the owner keeps while living
The account owner can change the beneficiaries or the account type, or withdraw the funds, at any time before death.1
State requirements Valley statesNew Jersey, Alabama, Florida
- New Jersey
For an account held at a New Jersey branch, the beneficiary designation is the one shown on the account records, and Valley reserves the right to refuse some forms of ownership and beneficiary designations.1
For an account held at a New Jersey branch, pay-on-death payees can withdraw only after every party who created the account has died, and only if the payee is then living. Two or more surviving payees own the account in equal shares, without right of survivorship.1
- Alabama
Under the Alabama terms of the deposit account agreement, a pay-on-death account passes at the owner's death to the named beneficiaries and is not part of the owner's estate.1
- Florida
Under the Florida terms of the deposit account agreement, a pay-on-death account passes at the owner's death to the named beneficiaries and is not part of the owner's estate.1
Which accounts a trust can hold1
- Trust account
Valley's deposit account agreement permits accounts opened and maintained by a trustee named under a written trust agreement.1
What Valley says about trust accounts1
- Review of the trust document
By opening the account, Valley does not act as trustee and does not monitor or enforce the terms of the trust.1
Accounts handled elsewhere1
- Valley Wealth & Trust
Personal trust services for revocable, irrevocable, testamentary and special needs trusts3
Not in Valley's published guidance5
- What the owner provides to name a beneficiary
- A beneficiary designation form
- An online way to name a beneficiary
- A beneficiary designation procedure
- A trust account document list
Sources3
- 1.Deposit account agreement, VNBWK Rev.07/01/2025
- 2.All Access Checking
- 3.Personal Trust Services
Sources
Data sourced from Valley primary sources (18 pages reviewed). How we research.
Download these Valley instructions
Download instructions for the whole estateA printable PDF with the steps, required documents, and contact details — verified against Valley primary sources. Bring it to the branch or keep it beside the phone.
Valley estate support
Valley Wealth & Trust
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Estate planning articles
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