Banks and brokerages
Checking, savings, investments, retirement
It has a setting you can switch on today
Payable on death or transfer on death, about 15 minutes
- Ask each bank for its payable-on-death form, and each broker for its transfer-on-death form. Many let you do it online.
- Name who should get the account. It costs nothing.
- On a death, that person brings the death certificate and ID, and the money goes to them without waiting for probate.
- Check the beneficiaries on retirement accounts and life insurance at the same time: those forms win over a will.
If nobody planned
Without a named beneficiary, the account usually waits for probate, which can take months, and the family may not even know it exists.
Write this down for your family
- Every account, with the last 4 digits
- Who is named as beneficiary on each
- The sign-in for online banking