To name a beneficiary on your Stash account, you complete a paper Stash beneficiary designation form, have your signature notarized, and email the scanned form to support@stash.com. Stash does not handle this through the app or the website account settings. The form you need depends on which Stash account you’re designating: investment accounts use a Transfer on Death (TOD) form, and bank accounts use a Payable on Death (POD) form. Each account requires its own separate submission.
Which Form You Need
Stash uses different forms for different account types, and submitting the wrong one means starting over.
The investment (brokerage) account uses a TOD designation. The bank account uses a POD designation. Both forms collect the same categories of information and follow the same submission process, but they are separate documents and must be filed individually for each account you hold.
Traditional and Roth IRAs at Stash also use a beneficiary form.1Stash. Retirement Calculator The submission process is the same, but retirement accounts carry extra rules around spousal rights and required distributions that don’t apply to a standard brokerage or bank account.
Stash Kids custodial accounts, held under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, do not use a beneficiary form. The minor already owns the assets. If the child dies before reaching the age of majority, the funds pass through the child’s estate.2Social Security Administration. SI 01120.205 Uniform Transfers to Minors Act
Information to Gather Before You Start
For each person you name, the form asks for six items:3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form
- Full legal name as it appears on government ID (nicknames can cause problems at claim time)
- Relationship to you (spouse, child, sibling, friend, and so on)
- Date of birth
- Social Security number or Taxpayer ID
- Residential street address (not a P.O. box)
- Current telephone number
A single transposed digit in a Social Security number can block processing, so verify every number before you submit.
Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries
You can list up to six primary beneficiaries and up to six contingent beneficiaries. Primary beneficiaries receive the assets first. Contingent beneficiaries inherit only if every primary beneficiary has died before you.
Allocations must be whole-number percentages, and each group’s percentages must total exactly 100. The form will not accept fractions or dollar amounts.3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form
Naming a Trust Instead of a Person
If you want a trust to receive the assets, you’ll need three additional details: the full legal name of the trust, the names of every current trustee, and the date the trust was established.3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form A revocable living trust generally uses the grantor’s Social Security number for tax purposes during the grantor’s lifetime, so that number goes in the Taxpayer ID field.
Spousal Consent in Community Property States
If you live in a community property state and your spouse is not your sole primary beneficiary, your spouse must sign the form.3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form That signature waives their community property interest in the account. The nine community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 – Community Property
If you live in one of these states and plan to name a child, sibling, trust, or anyone other than your spouse — even partially — get the spousal signature before you submit. Stash can reject the form without it.
Submitting the Form
Download the correct form from Stash’s support page, fill in every field, and take it to a notary public to have your signature notarized. Then scan or photograph the completed, notarized form and email it to support@stash.com.5Stash. FAQ: Account Management
Notary fees generally run from $5 to $20 per signature depending on your state. Banks, UPS stores, and shipping centers often have a notary on site.
Your designation is not active until Stash receives and accepts the documentation.3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form Skipping the notarization, leaving a required field blank, or forgetting spousal consent when it’s required will cause the form to be rejected. Save a copy of the notarized form and any confirmation email you receive. That record is your proof the designation is in force.
Updating Your Beneficiaries Later
There is no way to edit an existing designation. You change beneficiaries by submitting a brand-new form, and the most recently accepted form replaces every prior version.3Stash. Stash Bank Beneficiary Designation Form Starting a new form or downloading a blank one changes nothing. The process repeats the original: complete, notarize, and email to support@stash.com.
A will or trust document cannot override your TOD or POD designation. The form controls, regardless of what your other estate planning documents say.6Facet. Apex Clearing New Account Disclosures This is the trap that catches people after a divorce: they update the will, forget the brokerage form, and the ex-spouse remains the legal beneficiary.
About half the states have “revocation upon divorce” statutes that automatically void an ex-spouse’s beneficiary status after a divorce decree. Coverage varies by state and by account type, so don’t count on it. Submit a new form after any major life change: marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or the death of someone you named.
What Happens If a Named Beneficiary Dies Before You
For Stash investment accounts cleared through Apex Clearing, the default rule is pro rata redistribution. If a primary beneficiary dies before you do, that person’s share gets divided proportionally among the surviving primary beneficiaries so the full 100 percent still goes out.6Facet. Apex Clearing New Account Disclosures If you named two children at 50 percent each and one dies before you, the surviving child receives the whole account.
If every primary beneficiary dies before you, the contingent beneficiaries step in under the same pro rata rule. If no beneficiaries at all survive you, the TOD designation is treated as though it never existed, and the assets fall into your estate and go through probate.6Facet. Apex Clearing New Account Disclosures
Some brokerages offer “per stirpes” distribution, where a deceased beneficiary’s share passes to that person’s own children instead of being spread among the other beneficiaries. The standard Apex Clearing TOD form uses pro rata by default. If per stirpes matters to your plan, ask Stash support whether the option is available before you submit.
What Happens If You Don’t File a Form
With no valid beneficiary designation on file, your Stash account assets become part of your general estate at death. They go through probate: a court-supervised process that takes months, costs money in legal fees, and creates a public record. Without a will, state intestacy law decides who inherits, generally starting with a surviving spouse, then children, then more distant relatives.
Retirement accounts have one safety net. A spouse is often the default beneficiary of an IRA under federal rules even if no form is on file. Taxable brokerage and bank accounts have no automatic default. Filing the form is the only way to keep those assets out of probate.