A Will cannot change who your beneficiaries are on accounts or house

A Will cannot change who your beneficiaries are on accounts or house

If there is a beneficiary or joint owner on an account, upon your death that person receives those assets. A basic Will cannot change who your beneficiaries are on accounts or house. Common examples are houses owned husband and wife, joint accounts or POD bank accounts, and anyone you name on IRA, retirement account or SEP.

POD Payable upon death accounts are not part of the Probate Estate or the Will

Assets held by the testator and another person jointly, with a right of survivorship, are said to be held as “Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship” (JTWROS); and pass by operation of law at the testator’s death to the surviving joint tenant. Bank accounts, securities and real estate are often held in joint tenancy. Assets that are titled this way are not subject to probate. The name on the bank or securities account application and the deed for real estate may read: “John Smith and Jane Doe, as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship.” Be careful changing title to existing assets because there can be tax and other consequences. Source http://www.bergencountysurrogate.com/whatisprobate.pdf

   Below are the details NJ statutes on joint bank accounts. Hire a NJ attorney if you are the Executor to make sure all taxes paid before bank accounts distributed and spent.

         Registration in beneficiary form may be shown by the words "transfer on death" or the abbreviation "TOD," or by the words "pay on death" or the abbreviation "POD," after the name of the registered owner and before the name of the beneficiary.

N.J.S. § 3B:30-6

NJSA 3B:1-1  Definitions A to H.
"Governing instrument" means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with the designation "pay on death" (POD) or "transfer on death" (TOD), security registered in beneficiary form with the designation "pay on death" (POD) or "transfer on death" (TOD), pension, profit-sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney, or a dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type.