Payable-on-Death Deposit-Account Beneficiary Rules in Washington
At a glance
| Accounts covered | Checking, savings, CDs, savings certificates, share accounts and like deposits at banks, savings institutions and credit unions (§ 30A.22.040(1),(8)). |
|---|---|
| How the POD designation is made | POD payee is designated under the deposit contract; it may name one or several depositors and payees (§ 30A.22.040(17)-(18)). |
| Who may be named | One or more persons may be named; 'person' includes a trust, corporation, partnership and other legal entity (§ 30A.22.040(9),(17)). |
| Owner and beneficiary rights before death | Depositor may request payment under account terms; payee becomes a depositor only when entitled after surviving required depositor(s) (§§ 30A.22.040(5),(18), 30A.22.110). |
| Joint owner's priority over payee | Surviving joint depositor with survivorship takes before POD payee; without survivorship, deceased depositor's designated POD interest can pass at death (§ 30A.22.100(2)-(4)). |
| If a payee dies first | POD payee must survive required depositor(s); surviving named payees take; personal representative of payee who survived owner may receive payment after that payee dies (§§ 30A.22.100(4), 30A.22.180(3)). |
| Shares among surviving payees | Surviving payees take equally unless deposit contract specifies a different method; no later survivorship among them unless contract expressly provides (§ 30A.22.100(4)). |
| Changing the designation or using a will | Beneficiary rights arise from express deposit-contract terms; chapter gives no separate change form, and depositor's will cannot alter POD rights (§§ 30A.22.100, 30A.22.120). |
| Proof, payment, and bank discharge | Institution may pay payee upon proof of required depositors' deaths; absent actual knowledge of dispute, compliant payment discharges institution without settling beneficial ownership (§§ 30A.22.160, 30A.22.120, 30A.22.110). |
Requirements one by one
Accounts, contract and payees
§ 30A.22.040(1),(8) covers checking, savings, certificates of deposit, savings certificates, share accounts and similar deposits at listed institutions, including credit unions. Subsections (17)-(18) define a POD beneficiary as a person designated by the depositor under an account payable to the depositor during life and to named beneficiaries after the required depositor deaths. “Person” includes a trust, corporation, partnership and other legal entity under subsection (9). The beneficiary arrangement rests on the deposit contract; these provisions do not prescribe a universal designation card.
Lifetime rights and joint-owner priority
A POD beneficiary becomes a depositor only when the account becomes payable after surviving the required depositor or depositors (§ 30A.22.040(5)). § 30A.22.100(3)-(4) gives a surviving joint depositor with survivorship priority over the POD beneficiary until the last surviving depositor dies. For a joint account without survivorship, subsection (2) permits a POD designation for the deceased depositor's interest. § 30A.22.110 separates beneficial ownership from the institution's power to pay under the contract.
Survival and shares among payees
Under § 30A.22.100(4), remaining funds belong to the POD payee who survives the required depositor deaths. If more than one payee survives, they take equally unless the depositor specified another distribution in the deposit contract. Those payees have no later survivorship among themselves unless the agreement expressly provides for it. If a payee survived the depositor but then dies, § 30A.22.180(3) permits payment to that payee's personal representative upon the required death proofs.
Changing a designation or using a will
§ 30A.22.100 makes POD rights arise from the express deposit-contract terms and says a depositor's will cannot change them. § 30A.22.120 lets an institution rely on the account form and contract terms at payment. The chapter provisions quoted here do not prescribe a separate statutory beneficiary-change form; the account contract determines the operative designation.
Payment, proof and discharge
Under § 30A.22.160, an institution may pay a beneficiary after receiving proof of the deaths of all depositors who had to predecease that beneficiary. With several payees, it generally may not pay one more than the balance divided by the number of beneficiaries unless the contract provides otherwise. § 30A.22.040(14) defines acceptable proof of death. Under § 30A.22.120, a payment made according to the account terms generally discharges the institution absent actual knowledge of a dispute; § 30A.22.110 leaves beneficial ownership controversies distinct from its payment authority.
What trips people up
The default equal distribution in § 30A.22.100(4) concerns surviving beneficiaries, and the contract can specify a different method. Institution payment protection under §§ 30A.22.110 and .120 does not settle a dispute over who beneficially owns the funds.
Common questions
Can a trust be a POD payee? Yes. § 30A.22.040(9),(17) allows a “person” and defines that word to include a trust.
Can a will change the payees? No. § 30A.22.100 states that POD rights arise from express deposit-contract terms and cannot be changed by the depositor's will.
Statutes and sources
The verbatim statutory passages and official RCW URLs appear in the statutes entries above; each was accessed October 8, 2026.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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