How Do I Open a Trust Account at Bank of America?
Yes. Bank of America opens deposit accounts in the name of a revocable living trust. Bank of America's trust account requirements: how an account is opened or retitled to a revocable living trust, the documents to bring, and what the successor trustee needs after a death.
Opening a trust account at Bank of America
Account types: checking, savings
Opening or retitling
- In a branch
- Not stated
- Online
- Not stated
- By phone
- Not stated
- By mail
- Not stated
- Appointment
- Not stated
- Co-trustees
- Not stated
- Existing account
- Not stated
- What proves the trust
- Not stated
- Certification form
- Not stated
What it costs
- Opening deposit
- $100.00 (Advantage Plus Banking, Advantage Relationship Banking and Advantage Savings)
- Monthly fee
- Varies by account
- Fee waived at
- Varies by account
- Other waivers
- Fiduciary accounts, including trust accounts, are excluded from the Advantage Relationship Banking additional-account benefit and the under-age-25 waiver; a revocable trust account under the customer's own taxpayer ID counts as a BofA Rewards Qualifying Account, and the Preferred Plus, Preferred Honors or Premier tier waives the fee
- Schedule that applies
- Personal Schedule of Fees (effective August 7, 2026)
- For trust accounts
- The Personal Schedule of Fees names "Fiduciary accounts, including trust and estate accounts," in two carve-outs (the Advantage Relationship Banking additional-account benefit and the under-age-25 waiver), and its BofA Rewards terms name the revocable trust by name: an account owned by a revocable trust that uses the customer's taxpayer ID is a Qualifying Account for the grantor's tier, while an account where the customer is merely "trustee of a trust account" is not
| Account | To open | Monthly fee | Waiver or condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Advantage Plus Banking | $100.00 | $12.00 | $1,500 minimum daily balance, or one qualifying direct deposit of $250 or more per statement cycle, or BofA Rewards Preferred Plus, Preferred Honors or Premier tier |
| Bank of America Advantage Relationship Banking | $100.00 | $25.00 | $20,000 minimum daily balance, or BofA Rewards Preferred Plus, Preferred Honors or Premier tier |
| Bank of America Advantage Savings | $100.00 | $8.00 | $500 minimum daily balance, or BofA Rewards Preferred Plus, Preferred Honors or Premier tier; waived for six months from opening on new accounts |
Who can open it
- Existing customer
- Not stated
Documents to bring
Bank of America publishes no document list for trust accounts.
Once it is open
- Online banking
- Not stated
- Checks
- Not stated
- Debit card
- Not stated
After the grantor dies: the successor trustee at Bank of America
- Death certificate
- Not stated
- Trust's own EIN
- Not stated
- The account
- Not stated
- Online banking
- Not stated
- Appointment
- Not stated
Documents the successor brings
- Death certificate
- Trust agreement (formal trust)
Notification channels published on the Estate Services page and the Resource Guide: online through the Third-Party Case Manager submission form (non-customers) or Online Banking, by phone to the Estate Servicing Operations team at 888.689.4466, or in person at a financial center ("To save time, schedule an appointment online"). Those are the DECEDENT-notification channels; no page states a channel or appointment rule for changing the trustee of record on a trust deposit account. Scan of the Estate Services page (23,884 stripped chars): "trust" 8 (role sentence, "formal trust", glossary and footer), "trustee" 5 (role sentence and the Trustee / Successor trustee glossary entries), "trust account" 0. Resource Guide: "trust" 12, "trustee" 9, "revocable" 0, "EIN" 1 (glossary only). Neither says whether the trust needs its own EIN after the grantor dies.
What to know at Bank of America
SCAN 2026-09-21. Pages fetched and stripped: Deposit Agreement (818 "account", 8 "trust", 3 "trustee", 8 "fiduciar", 1 "certification"); Personal Schedule of Fees (fiduciary/trust lines at the Advantage Plus, Advantage Relationship and Advantage Savings rows plus the BofA Rewards Qualifying Accounts rule); Advantage Banking, Bank Accounts, Savings and Applying-for-Accounts FAQ pages (each carries the same two fiduciary footnotes and nothing else on trusts); Account Ownership Changes (10 "trust", all POD/ITF or footer; no change-to-trust option); Financial Center FAQs and Help Center overview (0 "trust"); Signature Services hub, Power of Attorney, Elder Financial Services, appointment FAQ pages (footer, trusted-contact and POA-on-a-trust-account contexts only); Online Banking Service Agreement effective May 18, 2026 (7 "trust", every one Zelle "others you trust"; 0 "fiduciar", 0 "trustee" -- it states no eligibility rule for trust accounts either way). Bank of America publishes NO trust-account product page, NO opening channel for a trust deposit account, NO downloadable certification-of-trust form (four constructed PDF/page paths 404; the "trustee certification" PDFs on third-party form mirrors are Merrill's), and NO out-of-branch rule. The only place the bank names its OWN Trustee certification form is the Medallion Signature Guarantee page, where it is provided and notarized at a financial-center appointment for securities transfers -- that is not stated as a deposit-opening requirement and is recorded as context only. The Employee Banking & Investing program FAQ (resources.bankofamerica.com/bip/phillips66) is the one sentence naming revocable trust accounts as PERSONAL account types under a trustee's SSN; the BofA Rewards terms in the fee schedule add that an account owned by a revocable trust using the customer's taxpayer ID is a Qualifying Account for the grantor. The appointment FAQ lists "trust documents" among the "Official documentation that the business entity exists" for a business NAME change, a change-of-information context rather than opening. Merrill (investment) trust accounts are a different product with their own CMA Trust Application and Trustee Certification form; nothing from Merrill is used here.
This guide summarizes each bank's published trust-account requirements and is not legal or banking advice. Requirements may vary by state and account type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bank of America's published guidance does not state where a trust account is opened.
Bank of America publishes no document list for trust accounts.
Bank of America does not state which taxpayer number a revocable trust account is opened under.
Per Bank of America's published procedure, the successor brings: Death certificate; Trust agreement (formal trust).
A trust account is a deposit account titled in the name of a trust rather than a person — for a revocable living trust, typically "[Trustee name], Trustee of the [Trust name]". While the grantor is alive and serving as trustee, the account is the grantor's to use; the trust title is what keeps the funds out of probate and lets the successor trustee take over without a court appointment.
A trust account holds assets that were titled to a trust before death, and the successor trustee takes control of it under the trust document. An estate account is opened after death by the court-appointed executor or administrator, under the estate's own EIN, for assets that were not in a trust and pass through probate. A family with a funded revocable trust may need only the trust account; a family with a will, or no will, opens an estate account.
Sources
Data sourced from Bank of America primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
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