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

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Covered accounts and the agreement

Financial Institutions § 1-204(b)(2) covers deposit and share accounts, including checking, savings, share drafts, and certificated or uncertificated time deposits. The institution definition in § 1-204(b)(6) reaches qualifying state, federal, other-state, and foreign institutions with a Maryland location or branch. The multiple-party definition in § 1-204(b)(8) includes POD accounts but excludes specified business, charitable, and fiduciary accounts. An account agreement can consist of more than one written instrument (§ 1-204(b)(3)); the institution may establish a POD account under § 1-204(c)(1)-(2). Section 1-204(a) treats its compliant death-transfer term as nontestamentary.

Owners and payees

A POD account can have one or several parties and one or several payees (§ 1-204(b)(10)). A payee is a designated person who takes after all parties die and who has no present right to draw funds merely as payee (§ 1-204(b)(11)). During life, a party may withdraw unless the account agreement expressly provides otherwise (§ 1-204(f)). At a party's death, § 1-204(d)(1) gives the express agreement first place. Without an express death-right term, surviving parties take under § 1-204(d)(2). After the last party dies, living POD payees receive the remaining balance by default; if none is living, the last party's personal representative takes, unless the agreement expressly changes the result (§ 1-204(d)(3)).

Shares, changes, and payment

Section 1-204(d)(3) identifies the living POD payees but does not allocate a percentage among multiple payees. Check the written account agreement for the allocation and the institution's change procedure; § 1-204(d)(1) makes its express death-right terms controlling. A compliant POD transfer is nontestamentary under § 1-204(a), so a will should not be assumed to replace the account agreement.

Payment to a deceased party's personal representative requires proof that the deceased was the last surviving party or that no survivorship right exists (§ 1-204(d)(4)). If there is no survivorship right, § 1-204(d)(5) protects the institution's payment to the representative against claims by other parties and their heirs or representatives. The section states those protection conditions for representative payment; beneficiary payment follows the agreement and § 1-204(d)(3).

What trips people up

Maryland's default turns on who is a party and who is only a POD payee. A payee's name on the account does not create a present withdrawal right (§ 1-204(b)(11)); a surviving party ordinarily takes before the payee under § 1-204(d)(2)-(3). For accounts opened on or after October 1, 1993, § 1-204(e)(1)-(2) requires a clear written survivorship statement and a copy of the agreement or notice explaining how to obtain it. Read that agreement when ownership or payee shares are disputed.

Common questions

Can a credit-union share account have a POD payee? Yes. The account definition expressly includes share and share-draft accounts (§ 1-204(b)(2)), and the institution definition covers qualifying financial institutions (§ 1-204(b)(6)).

What if every named payee dies first? Unless the account agreement expressly provides otherwise, § 1-204(d)(3) gives the balance to the last party's personal representative.

Does naming a payee let that person withdraw now? No. Section 1-204(b)(11) withholds that right from someone acting only as a POD payee; § 1-204(f) deals with party withdrawals.

Statutes and sources

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