Yes. Almost every checking, savings, money market, or CD account in the U.S. lets you name a bank account beneficiary, and doing so sends the balance straight to that person when you die without a probate court touching it. The mechanism is called a Payable on Death (POD) designation, sometimes labeled Transfer on Death or a Totten Trust, and setting one up usually takes a few minutes online or at a branch.1National Credit Union Administration. Payable-on-Death Accounts
What a POD Designation Actually Does
A POD designation is an instruction sitting on your account that tells the bank who gets the money when you die. The bank follows it automatically once it receives proof of death. No court order, no executor, no probate filing for the account itself.
While you’re alive, the person you name has no rights at all. They can’t see the balance, make withdrawals, or even confirm they’re listed. You keep full control, and you can change or remove the beneficiary any time by updating the form. The designation is invisible until the moment it matters.
Which Accounts Allow It
Checking, savings, money market accounts, and CDs at most banks and credit unions accept POD designations when the account is in your name alone. A few situations work differently and catch people off guard:
- Joint accounts: The surviving co-owner inherits the whole account by right of survivorship. The POD beneficiary receives nothing until the last surviving owner dies.
- Custodial accounts (UGMA/UTMA): The minor already legally owns the assets, so a traditional beneficiary designation doesn’t fit.
- Business accounts: Most banks don’t allow POD designations on commercial accounts. Ownership passes through the operating agreement or probate.
How to Add a Beneficiary
Most banks let you add or update a beneficiary through online banking under account settings or a “beneficiaries” section. You can also do it in person at a branch with a paper form.
For each person you name, you’ll need:
- Their full legal name as it appears on government-issued ID
- Their Social Security number, which the bank uses to verify identity when they eventually claim the funds2Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Can a Bank Require a Beneficiary to Provide a Social Security Number
- Their date of birth and current address for records and legal notices
Once the bank processes the request, you should get a confirmation by mail or email. Keep it. If a technical glitch drops the designation off the account, that confirmation is your proof of intent. The change usually shows up on your next monthly statement too.
Naming More Than One Person
You aren’t limited to one beneficiary. Most banks let you name several and assign each one a percentage of the balance, and those percentages have to add up to exactly 100%. If you don’t specify shares, many institutions default to equal splits.
Primary and Contingent
A primary beneficiary is first in line. A contingent beneficiary receives funds only if the primary has already died. Without a contingent named, the money can fall back into your general estate and go through probate if your primary beneficiary predeceases you, which defeats the whole point of the designation.
Per Stirpes vs. Per Capita
Some forms let you choose how a share is redirected if a beneficiary dies before you, and the two options behave very differently:
- Per stirpes (“by branch”): That beneficiary’s share passes to their children. If you named two kids equally and one dies first, that child’s half goes to your grandchildren from that branch.
- Per capita (“by head”): The share is split among the surviving beneficiaries instead. Using the same setup, your surviving child gets 100% and the grandchildren get nothing from this account.
Not every bank offers both. If the form doesn’t ask, get a representative to explain how the bank handles a beneficiary who predeceases you. This matters more as families grow across generations.
Naming a Minor
You can list a child as your POD beneficiary, but banks won’t release funds directly to a minor. The money sits frozen until a court appoints a guardian or custodian to manage it, which produces exactly the delay and cost a POD designation is supposed to avoid.
A cleaner route is to name a trust as the beneficiary, with the child as the trust’s beneficiary. The trustee you already chose can then manage the funds immediately. Some people instead name a trusted adult with an informal understanding that the money is meant for the child, but that adult has no legal obligation to follow through.
How the Beneficiary Collects the Money
After the account owner dies, the beneficiary brings the bank two things: a certified copy of the death certificate and a valid government-issued photo ID. Most banks close out the claim within a few business days to a couple of weeks, either cutting a cashier’s check or moving the funds directly into the beneficiary’s own account. Probate, by contrast, can tie up assets for months.
Bigger FDIC Coverage as a Side Benefit
Most people don’t realize that POD designations also expand FDIC deposit insurance. A single-owner account is insured up to $250,000. Add POD beneficiaries and the FDIC insures up to $250,000 per beneficiary, capped at $1,250,000 once you name five or more.3FDIC. FAQs – FDIC Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator
- 1 beneficiary: $250,000
- 2 beneficiaries: $500,000
- 3 beneficiaries: $750,000
- 4 beneficiaries: $1,000,000
- 5 or more beneficiaries: $1,250,000
The coverage applies per owner, per bank, and the FDIC counts unique beneficiaries across all your POD and trust accounts at the same institution.3FDIC. FAQs – FDIC Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator If you keep large cash balances, this is one of the easiest ways to protect deposits beyond the standard limit.
The POD Form Beats Your Will
This is where estate plans quietly go wrong. If your will leaves the savings account to your son but the POD form names your daughter, your daughter gets the money. The bank follows the beneficiary form. Courts uphold this because the POD designation is a contract between you and the bank.
Divorce is the classic trap. Some states automatically revoke an ex-spouse’s beneficiary designation after divorce. Others don’t. If you divorce and never update the form, your ex may still inherit the account regardless of what your new will says. Review your beneficiary designations after any major life event: marriage, divorce, a birth, a death.
A surviving spouse may have separate rights that override your choice. Many states give a surviving spouse the right to claim a portion of the deceased spouse’s estate, and some include POD accounts in that calculation. The specifics turn on your state’s elective share laws.
Taxes for the Beneficiary
Inheriting the balance through a POD designation doesn’t trigger federal income tax on the money itself. Any interest the account earns after the owner’s death, though, is taxable income to the beneficiary.
The balance still counts as part of the deceased owner’s gross estate for federal estate tax purposes. POD accounts bypass probate; they don’t bypass estate tax. For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000, so most families won’t owe anything.4Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax Above that threshold, the bank balance gets counted alongside life insurance, retirement accounts, and everything else.
What Happens With No Beneficiary Named
If you never designate anyone, or every named beneficiary dies before you, the account usually falls into your probate estate. It then passes under your will, or under your state’s intestacy laws if you don’t have one. Either way, your family ends up in the probate process the POD designation was meant to avoid. Naming both primary and contingent beneficiaries, and reviewing them every few years, is the cheapest estate planning move available to most account holders.