Payable-on-Death Deposit-Account Beneficiary Rules in Indiana

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Accounts and designation

Indiana's transfer-on-death chapter includes deposits within intangible personal property (§ 32-17-14-3(4)) and expressly discusses accounts at banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions (§ 32-17-14-19(b)). A beneficiary designation is a written instrument other than a will or trust (§ 32-17-14-3(2)). It must be signed and dated under § 32-17-14-26(b)(1) and executed and delivered to the institution before death under § 32-17-14-9(b). Under § 32-17-14-4(b)-(e), the designation must follow the governing instrument, the last joint owner's death is the relevant death, and sample wording includes “pay on death to” or “POD”; § 32-17-14-14(b)-(c) also permits POD on an account record placed there by the institution or its authorized person. An institution may require an agreement and need not accept a proposed transfer when § 32-17-14-7(a)-(b) applies.

Payees, owners, and survivors

A payee may be a person as defined in § 32-17-14-3(9), including an entity or trustee. Under § 32-17-14-21(a)-(c), a trustee may be named and a trust or entity that does not exist at death is generally treated as nonexistent. The owner may name primary and contingent beneficiaries under § 32-17-14-26(b)(3). Under § 32-17-14-15(a), the named beneficiary has no present right; a surviving joint owner takes ahead of the beneficiary under subsection (b).

An individual payee ordinarily must survive the owner, including any survival period stated in the designation (§ 32-17-14-20). The unusual qualification is § 32-17-14-22(b)-(d): if the deceased payee is the owner's lineal descendant, that payee's surviving lineal descendants substitute per stirpes unless the designation says “No LDPS” or otherwise opts out. For a deceased payee who is not the owner's lineal descendant, substitution requires express LDPS wording. If neither substitute descendants nor another beneficiary survives, § 32-17-14-22(f) and § 32-17-14-15(f) leave the property in the owner's estate.

Shares, changes, and payment

Surviving payees share equally unless stated percentages or fractions differ (§ 32-17-14-26(b)(5)). Under § 32-17-14-26(b)(9), a failed primary share goes proportionately to surviving primary payees if no substitute takes it; contingent payees take when no primary payee or substitute survives. A later designation generally supersedes an earlier one, but changes must satisfy the governing instrument and law (§ 32-17-14-16(e)-(g)). A will or trust changes the designation only if the designation expressly grants that power.

A beneficiary or the owner's representative may request payment in writing under § 32-17-14-26(b)(17). The request must include the account evidence, death proof and other specified evidence under § 32-17-14-26(b)(19); the institution can also transfer without a written request under § 32-17-14-27(b). Good-faith transfer under the designation on information reasonably believed accurate discharges the institution under § 32-17-14-27(k).

What trips people up

A joint owner's death does not itself trigger payment to a POD beneficiary: § 32-17-14-4(c) treats the last joint owner's death as the owner's death for this chapter. Joint owners with survivorship must all agree to revoke or change the designation while alive (§ 32-17-14-16(d)). The account's unpaid payment requests can also reduce what the beneficiary receives; § 32-17-14-19(b) makes the transfer subject to requests issued by the owner before death.

Common questions

Can a trustee be named? Yes. Section 32-17-14-21(a) permits a trustee of a funded or unfunded, revocable or irrevocable trust. Its existence rules at death still matter.

Does a deceased child's share always go to the other named payees? No. Section 32-17-14-22(b)-(c) may pass that share to the child's descendants unless the designation opts out. Section 32-17-14-26(b)(9) reallocates only a failed share with no substitute.

Can a will replace the bank designation? Only if the designation expressly allows that method (§ 32-17-14-16(g)).

Statutes and sources

The verbatim passages and official source URL appear in the statutes entries above; each was accessed October 8, 2026.