savings account with beneficiaries or in a trust
My husband and I have a trust. Our savings account with Citi bank is titled in our trust. We moved some of the money to a CD today and the banker told us they recommend married people just open a CD in their joint names (and of course list beneficiaries) instead of opening it in the name of the trust. What is the benefit of putting savings accounts and CD’s in our trust? I thought it was to avoid probate but the banker said they pay out directly to the beneficiaries listed.
Terry Says
Your “banker” has absolutely NO BUSINESS giving you estate planning advice! The whole idea of the trust is that the successor trustee can act if the other trustee is INCAPACITATED! So if your husband had a stroke and you needed access to the cash in that joint-name CD, you would have to get a court order to get at the money. You only get it outright if the co-owner dies!
Smoke is coming out of my ears that your banker (probably a low-level clerk at some bank) would have the audacity to make this suggestion. If you’ll send me his/her name and the bank office where he/she works, I will be happy to write to the branch manager and get that person fired!
