Payable on Death Accounts

• An account owner may designate one or more beneficiaries to receive assets in the bank account under the payable on death provision. The beneficiary must provide a certified copy of the death certificate to receive the funds. However, if the beneficiary predeceases the account owner, the account becomes part of the estate and subject to the probate process. At that point, it would pass to designated beneficiaries in a will or, if the decedent died intestate, to the heirs according to California laws of intestate succession.
  
  

Multiple Beneficiaries

• If the payable on death account has multiple beneficiaries, the rights to the amount on deposit depend on how the decedent account holder subdivided the assets. The decedent may have divided the account equally among all parties or listed a certain percentage for each individual. If one party dies before receiving his share, the remaining parties may claim the amount on deposit in equal shares, unless the decedent provided otherwise in the account agreement.
  
  

Types of Assets

• Under California law, not only bank accounts may provide payable on death titles. State law also allows other types of real property, such as motor vehicles, to be titled in this manner. Otherwise, motor vehicles owned solely by the decedent would become part of the estate's probatable assets.
  
  

Changing the Payable on Death Account

• Since a payable on death account supersedes a will, an account owner who decides to change a beneficiary cannot simply leave that particular account to another party in the will. If he decides to change a beneficiary once the payable on death account is established, he must close the account and re-open it, either naming a new beneficiary or not using the payable on death provision. An alternative is presenting the bank with an agreement to modify the titling signed by all interested parties. Depending on the financial institution, it may have its own document to use in these circumstances.