POD Accounts: There is Nothing to it

ALEXANDRIA, Va.- Payable-on-death accounts are not a required offering of federal credit unions, but NCUA Associate General Counsel Sheila Albin said she did find it odd that a credit union did not. “While the FCU Act does not require FCUs to provide POD accounts, we find it unusual for an FCU not to permit members to establish simple POD accounts,” she wrote in a recent legal opinion letter. PPayable-on-death accounts allow a member to set up an account that is payable on the death of the member to a family member. She noted that this type of account is often used by members to expand their deposit insurance coverage beyond the basic $100,000. Albin encouraged the credit union member to express his interest in POD accounts to the CU’s board of directors. To create a POD account, the member must designate their intention in the title of the account, such as “in trust for” and include the beneficiary. No separate formal agreement is necessary, Albin wrote. The federal credit union does not become a trustee or subject itself to any liability related to the management of trust assets.