Sleep Better with Beneficiaries on Your Financial Accounts
You don’t want the wrong people (or the government) getting your money when you’re gone. Adding beneficiaries to your accounts solves that problem.
Bank Accounts
Think it’s easy for someone to get into your checking and savings when you die? Nope. Without a beneficiary, which dictionary.com defines as a person designated as the recipient of funds or other property under a will, trust, insurance policy, etc., your money will sit there until a court decides who gets it. Your family needs it? Tough. How about just a little for final costs? Ain’t happening.
Years ago, when I worked in a bank, I had two grandchildren come in with a death certificate for their grandmother, who’d raised them. They needed the money in her account for the funeral and other expenses. But there wasn’t a beneficiary on the account.
When I told them they couldn’t get the money, they broke down and started a second round of grieving. They couldn’t even bury her!
Take the Initiative
Some banks (and states) will call account beneficiaries PODs (payable on death) or will label the account ITF (in trust for) someone. The problem? Few bankers mention beneficiaries when opening accounts. It’s on us, as consumers, to ask.
