Also known as: POD designations · payable on death designation · payable-on-death designation · POD · payable on death · TOD designation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A designation of a beneficiary in a financial account directing that sums on deposit pass to the beneficiary upon the death of the account owner or owners.
Penelope Price opens a checking account at Pacific Bank and lists Patrick Phan as the person to receive the balance on her death. When Penelope dies, the bank transfers the funds directly to Patrick. The transfer occurs without probate because the designation controls distribution of the account.
Pierre Poulin maintains a certificate of deposit and an annuity payable on death to his daughters. After Pierre's death his surviving spouse asserts that the POD assets must be included when calculating her elective share. The court examines whether the designations place the assets outside the probate estate for elective share purposes.
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A beneficiary named on a POD designation holds no right to the sums on deposit while any party to the account remains alive.
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Divorce revokes a POD designation to a former spouse unless the divorce decree or a separate contract expressly preserves the designation.
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A POD designation on a multiple-party account that lacks right of survivorship is ineffective.
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Courts have divided on whether POD assets are included in the surviving spouse's elective share, with some decisions treating them as nonprobate transfers outside the estate.
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…retirement account; and property acquired by right of survivorship, by a trust distribution, by bequest or inheritance or by a payable on death or a transfer on death arrangement under ch. 705. 3. With funds acquired in a manner provided in subd. 1. or 2. Wis. Stat. § 767.61(2)(a). If excluding this property "will create a…