On a nonretirement account, designating a beneficiary or beneficiaries establishes a transfer on death (TOD) registration for the account. For an individual account, a TOD registration generally allows ownership of the account to be transferred to the designated beneficiary upon your death.
Accounts or assets with named beneficiaries may be transferred without going through the probate process.If there is a TOD on the account, the assets will only go to the beneficiary if both joint owners pass away. In either case, the asset will not likely go through probate.
A TOD designation supersedes a will. For bank accounts, you can set up a similar account known as payable-on-death, sometimes referred to as a Totten trust. Your beneficiaries can't touch the account while you're alive, and you're free to change beneficiaries or close the accounts at any time.
An account holder may choose to list both of their children as equal beneficiaries. However, an account holder can also choose to list individuals in unequal amounts. For example, you could designate a primary beneficiary to receive 50 percent of the funds and two secondary beneficiaries who receive 25 percent each.
The Washington transfer-on-death deed form allows property to be automatically transferred to a new owner when the current owner dies, without the need to go through probate. It also gives the current owner retained control over the property, including the right to change his or her mind about the transfer.
A TOD designation supersedes a will. For bank accounts, you can set up a similar account known as payable-on-death, sometimes referred to as a Totten trust. Your beneficiaries can't touch the account while you're alive, and you're free to change beneficiaries or close the accounts at any time.
Receiving an inheritance can be an unexpected windfall. In fact, transfer on death accounts are exposed to all the same income and capital gains taxes when the account owner is alive, as well as estate and inheritance taxes upon the owner's death.
TOD account holders can name multiple beneficiaries and divide assets any way they like.However, the beneficiaries have no access or rights to a TOD account while its owner is alive. Those beneficiaries can also be changed at any time, so long as the TOD account holder is deemed mentally competent.