pod accounts
I have been told that if you make your bank accounts….POD accounts. Paid on Death, you do not have to go to probate….but many banks I have asked to do this say they cannot mark this a POD account but can put beneficiaries on it. Is this the same thing as a POD account? mpallot@aol.com
Terry Says
A bank account — money market, CD, or savings account — can be listed as a POD account, naming a person to whom the account will be payable at your death. You can change that designation at any time.
BUT, I suspect that you are referring to an IRA account, in which you have a CD or money market deposit account. In this case, you are required to name a BENEFICIARY, who will receive the money at your death.
In both of the above cases the money does not go through the probate process. BUT you should instruct the beneficiary of the IRA account not to simply take the money and run! Instead, they should roll it over into their own IRA where it can keep growing tax-deferred, subject to some small distribution requirements annually.
