Estate planning and settlement at Whitefish CU

How your Whitefish CU accounts transfer at death depends on how each one is set up. As a membership-based credit union, Whitefish CU field of membership (Bylaws Art. II Sec. 1, repeated on the Open An Account page): persons, trusts, organizations, partnerships, and corporations who live, work, operate, own property, worship, participate in an association, or go to school within fifty air miles of Whitefish, Montana, or within Beaverhead, Big Horn, Broadwater, Carbon, Cascade, Deer Lodge, Flathead, Gallatin, Granite, Jefferson, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Lincoln, Madison, Meagher, Mineral, Missoula, Park, Powell, Ravalli, Sanders, Silver Bow, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, and Yellowstone counties. The Bylaws (Art. II Sec. 7) extend membership to members of the immediate family of credit union members; the Savings Account page words it as "Immediate family of qualified applicants". A member who moves out of the field of membership may keep membership ("Once a member, always a member", Art. II Sec. 5). Branch footprint is narrower than the field of membership: eight branches in Whitefish, Kalispell, South Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Eureka, Polson, Thompson Falls, and Missoula. With 7 account types, the transfer rules vary—getting the right designations in place now prevents delays and court involvement later.