What it means
A pay-on-death (POD) designation names who takes a deposit account when its owners die. During any owner's lifetime the beneficiary has no right to the money — the account belongs to the parties.
At death the statute is mechanical: sums first belong to the surviving parties on the account; on the death of the sole or last surviving party, they belong to the surviving beneficiaries in equal shares; if no beneficiary survives, the money falls into the last party's estate. A bank that pays under the section is discharged from claims, whether or not the payment matches true beneficial ownership.
- Lifetime: a POD beneficiary has no rights to the deposit while any party is alive (§655.82(2)).
- Order at death: surviving parties first; then surviving beneficiaries in equal shares; if none survive, the last party's estate (§655.82(3)).
- A POD designation on a multiple-party account without right of survivorship is ineffective (§655.82(4)).
- An institution paying per the section is discharged from claims, even if payment mismatches beneficial ownership (§655.82(7)).
How it plays out
POD accounts are the most common probate-avoider we see, and the most commonly mishandled. The account passes outside the will entirely — which is exactly the problem when the will says one thing and the bank form says another, or when the named beneficiary died first and the account quietly falls back into the estate. When we open an administration we pull the designation on every account, because the paperwork at the bank, not the will, decides where that money goes.
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