Louisiana Payable on Death Bank Accounts

We get many questions about whether an individual can set up a bank accounts, such as a checking account, savings account, or certificate of deposit (CD) and name a beneficiary or beneficiaries of that account, and whether a designation like that would be valid.

If you want a bank account to be payable to your spouse, one or more children, grandchildren, parents or siblings, you must, at the time the account is established, give your bank an affidavit stating that all designated beneficiaries of your account are within the required degree of kinship.

The title of your account must include the terms, "in trust for", "as trustee for", or "payable on death to"  your beneficiary or beneficiaries.

The above provisions "shall apply notwithstanding the fact the decedent designates a beneficiary by last will and testament."

Does this previous language mean that banks are released from liability for paying the designated beneficiaries even though ownership is supposed to go to the person designated in the Will? Or does it mean that a bequest in a Will is irrelevant when a bank account owner has properly designated a beneficiary.

Perhaps you should do both to be safe:

1. Designate your beneficiaries in accordance with our "Payable on death accounts" statute; and
2. Make a consistent bequest in your Will of these accounts.

If I'm missing something, feel free to comment. This is a big issue for many older Louisiana residents who want to assign certain accounts to certain family members,

Paul Rabalais

Comments

[Minneapolis Lawyers]

Very well said here,contents are informative and reliable.Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

[BB]

I've been a personal banker for the past four years, and the bank for which I previously worked did not permit it's customer to open POD accounts due to Louisiana's strict community property laws. I've been under the impression that POD may not be honored regardless, if there are minor children present at the time the account owner dies. Can anyone please clarify this?

[Smart Brains]

The above provisions "shall apply notwithstanding the fact the decedent designates a beneficiary by last will and testament." Very well said here, contents are informative and reliable. Thanks for sharing this information with us.
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