How to Fill Out a Payable on Death (POD) Beneficiary Designation Form

To fill out a payable on death beneficiary form, ask your bank for its POD designation document, enter each beneficiary’s full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and mailing address, assign percentage shares that total 100, then sign and submit the form so the funds pass directly to those people when you die without going through probate. The form covers checking, savings, money market accounts, and CDs, and some banks extend it to investment accounts and IRAs as well.¹

Where to Get the Form

Most banks don’t offer the form automatically when you open an account. You have to ask.² Depending on the institution, it may be called a Beneficiary Designation Agreement, a Totten Trust form, or simply a POD form. Some banks let you add beneficiaries through online banking. Others require a paper form you can pick up at a branch, download from the bank’s website, or request by phone. Large institutions like Bank of America typically handle it through the online portal without printing anything.¹

You must be at least 18 to designate a POD beneficiary. If you hold several accounts at the same bank, check whether one form covers all of them or just one. Capital One’s form, for example, applies a single set of beneficiary designations across every account number listed, so a separate form is needed per account if you want different beneficiaries on different accounts.³

What Information Each Beneficiary Field Requires

POD forms are short, usually one or two pages, but every field matters. The bank needs enough identifying information to verify your beneficiaries when a claim is eventually filed. For each person you name, expect to provide:

Full legal name, exactly as it appears on a government-issued ID. Not a nickname.
Date of birth, used alongside the name to distinguish your beneficiary from others with a similar name.
Social Security number or ITIN, which the bank needs for IRS reporting on any interest earned before distribution.
Complete mailing address at a residence within the U.S. states and territories, so the bank can locate your beneficiaries if they don’t know about the account.³

A missing or illegible field is the fastest way to get your form rejected. Capital One’s instructions state the form will not be accepted if required fields are incomplete or unreadable.³ Check Social Security numbers carefully. A transposed digit can delay the eventual payout for weeks while the bank reconciles the mismatch.

Choosing Who to Name

Who Qualifies

Your beneficiary doesn’t have to be a family member. At Bank of America, eligible POD beneficiaries include a spouse, other family members, friends, businesses, charities, estates, and trusts, so long as the person or entity isn’t already an owner or co-owner on the account.¹ Policies vary. Capital One limits POD beneficiaries to individuals and does not allow trusts, with a cap of ten beneficiaries per account.³ If you want to name a trust, confirm your bank allows it before you fill anything out.

Assigning Percentages

When you name more than one beneficiary, you can give each person a percentage of the account balance. The percentages must add up to exactly 100 percent. If you leave the shares blank, many banks default to dividing the funds equally among all named beneficiaries.³ Use percentages rather than fixed dollar amounts. Your balance will fluctuate over the years, and a flat amount could leave funds unaccounted for or create conflict among the people you named.

Naming a Minor

You can name a child under 18 as a POD beneficiary, but a bank generally cannot hand money directly to a minor. If the child is still underage when the account holder dies, the bank will typically pay out under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, which routes the funds to a custodian for the child’s benefit. If you want a specific person to serve as custodian, ask your bank whether that can be noted on the form or whether a separate arrangement is needed.

Contingent Beneficiaries

A contingent, or secondary, beneficiary receives the funds only if all your primary beneficiaries have already died. Not every bank’s form includes a contingent section, but when the option is there, use it. Without a backup, if your sole named beneficiary predeceases you and you never update the form, the money falls back into your estate and goes through probate, which is the outcome the form exists to prevent.

Signing and Submitting

Most banks do not require notarization for a standard POD designation. You sign the form, and in many cases that signature is the only authentication needed. Some institutions ask you to sign in the presence of a bank employee who witnesses it. A few may request notarization, particularly if you’re returning the form by mail. Capital One’s form includes a notary section but treats it as a supplement for state-specific requirements, not a universal mandate.³ Check your bank’s instructions before paying for a notary you don’t need.

For submission, you generally have three options:

In person at a branch. A staff member can review the form for missing fields before it’s submitted, which catches errors early.
By mail to the address on the form’s instructions. Capital One’s mailing address, for example, is PO Box 85123, Richmond, VA 23285. Use certified mail with a return receipt so you have proof the bank received it.³
By fax or online upload, where the bank allows it. Keep the original in a safe place.

After submitting, confirm the designation is active. The bank should send a written or electronic confirmation. Review it against what you submitted. Data entry mistakes happen, and a misspelled name or wrong percentage is easier to fix now than when your beneficiaries are trying to claim the funds.

Changing or Removing a POD Designation

You can update your beneficiaries at any time by filing a new POD form. A new form automatically revokes all prior designations on the accounts it covers.³ Important consequence: when you submit a replacement, list every beneficiary you want to keep, not just the ones you’re adding. If you leave someone off the new form, that person is no longer a beneficiary, even if they appeared on the previous version.

To strip all beneficiaries from an account, some banks require a specific notation. Capital One’s New York form, for instance, has a checkbox to remove all beneficiaries from listed accounts.³ Life events that should trigger a review of your POD designations include divorce, remarriage, the death of a named beneficiary, and the birth of a child. A form you filled out fifteen years ago may no longer reflect your wishes.

How a POD Form Interacts With the Rest of Your Estate

A POD designation overrides your will. When you die, the account transfers immediately to the named beneficiary by operation of the account contract, not through your estate. If your will leaves your savings account to your sister but the POD form names your brother, your brother gets the money. A will can only distribute assets that are part of your probate estate, and a POD account never enters probate.¹ If you work with an estate planning attorney, bring a list of every account that carries a beneficiary designation so the two documents don’t contradict each other.

On a joint account with right of survivorship, the surviving co-owner takes full ownership when the first owner dies. The POD beneficiary receives nothing at that point. The designation only activates after the last surviving account owner dies. If the account has no right of survivorship, a POD designation may be treated differently or may not be effective at all, depending on the account agreement and state law. When opening a joint account with a POD designation, confirm with your bank how the two features interact.

A POD designation avoids probate, but it does not avoid estate taxes. The IRS counts POD account balances as part of your taxable estate.⁴ POD funds can also be pulled back to pay the deceased owner’s debts, taxes, and estate administration costs if other estate assets aren’t sufficient. The bank itself isn’t liable to your creditors and can pay out the POD funds as usual, but the beneficiaries may then owe reimbursement to the estate. If you carry significant debts, the POD label alone won’t shield the balance from those obligations.

FDIC Coverage Benefit

Adding POD beneficiaries can meaningfully increase your FDIC deposit insurance coverage. The standard limit is $250,000 per depositor per bank, but for accounts with POD designations, each owner is insured for $250,000 per unique beneficiary, up to a maximum of $1,250,000 for five or more beneficiaries.⁵

In practice, naming three beneficiaries on a POD account raises your insured coverage at that bank to $750,000 ($250,000 times three) instead of the standard $250,000. For a married couple with a joint POD account naming five beneficiaries, total coverage can reach $2,500,000, or $1,250,000 per owner. The coverage applies regardless of the percentage assigned to each beneficiary.⁵ For anyone keeping large cash balances spread across multiple banks for insurance reasons, a POD designation is a simpler way to reach the same protection at a single institution.

Mistakes That Break the Designation

Forgetting to update after major life events. A divorce doesn’t automatically remove your ex-spouse from a POD form. You have to file a new designation.
Contradicting your will. If your will and your POD form name different people for the same money, the POD form wins and the person in the will gets nothing from that account.
Leaving no contingent beneficiary. If your sole primary beneficiary dies before you and you haven’t named a backup, the account goes through probate.
Not telling your beneficiaries. The designation only works if someone shows up at the bank with a death certificate. If your beneficiaries don’t know the account exists, the funds can sit dormant for years before being turned over to the state’s unclaimed property division.⁶
Assuming the form carries over. When you close an account and open a new one at the same bank, the POD designation from the old account may not transfer automatically. Confirm and file a new form if needed.
Incomplete beneficiary information. A missing Social Security number or outdated address can delay the payout. Fill in every field, even the ones that feel redundant.

Keep a copy of every POD form you submit, along with the bank’s confirmation, somewhere secure but accessible. Your executor or a trusted family member should know where to find them. A fireproof safe or a labeled folder with your estate planning documents works. The point is to make sure the form does its job when the time comes, rather than sitting forgotten while your family navigates probate.

1
Bank of America. Beneficiaries FAQs
2
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Pitfalls of Pay on Death (POD) Accounts
3
Capital One. Designation of Payable on Death (POD) Beneficiary Form
4
Internal Revenue Service. Estate and Gift Tax FAQs
5
FDIC. Your Insured Deposits
6
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. When Is a Deposit Account Considered Abandoned or Unclaimed