Attorney Tom Olsen is host of the Olsen on Law Radio Show on in Orlando. Tom has been answering legal questions on his radio show for over 35 years and has been practicing law in Orlando for 40 years.
The Olsen on Law Radio Show is America’s longest running legal radio show.
Produced by Professional Media Ideas. Call or text Chrissy Merrill at 321-207-8384 or by email at chris@olsenlawgroup.com

Transcript:
Attorney Chris Merrill: Listener is saying, "Should I set up my beneficiary accounts as beneficiaries or PODs or TODs?" They are confused about how to properly set these accounts up. They're asking for our help. Of course, we know that the starting point is just realize that, number one, whatever bank account it is, including life insurance, you must have a beneficiary on that account in order to avoid probate, but then it depends upon what kind of account and what financial institution as to what they call that beneficiary designation.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes. Let's start with the basics, and that is for bank accounts, checking, savings, CDs, money market, investment, non-IRA accounts. You want to make those accounts POD, payable on death, TOD, transfer on death, ITF, in trust for. Typically your children is what we're talking about. Different banks, different credit unions, different financial institutions use different terms. You're not going to use all three for these accounts. You're going to use whatever term your bank happens to use. That's POD, TOD, ITF.
People sometimes say, "Tom, I want to make my child the beneficiary of my checking account." When we talk about naming a beneficiary, to me, that's limited to IRAs, retirement accounts, annuities, and life insurance. That's what I would call a beneficiary. IRAs, retirement accounts, life insurance, they don't go through probate. For those, as long as you've named a beneficiary and a contingent beneficiary, if you're a married couple, you name each other as a primary beneficiary, you name your children as the contingent beneficiary. I don't think of bank accounts having a beneficiary. I think bank accounts being POD, TOD, or ITF.
Chris: Correct. The important thing is though they mean the same thing. You're right. The term beneficiary is used for the IRAs and the 401(k)s. However, bank accounts, the term TOD, transfer on death, POD, payable on death, or ITF, in trust for, mean the same thing as beneficiary, and we understand that's why people get confused. Again, it goes back to certain types of [unintelligible 00:02:36] use certain terminology for how you call it, but at the end of the day, it is beneficiary. I think it's important too that people understand that any of these could go through probate if you don't name the proper designation.
Tom: All right. Great question. We appreciate it. Everybody, my name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law. You're listening to 96.9 The Game.

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