CD beneficiaries

[SqueakysMom]

Jurisdiction

California

I live in CA and have a CD with my brother and sister as beneficiaries. My brother is now terminally ill and lives in Arizona. When I pass will my brother's wife inherit his portion?

 

[army judge]

I live in CA and have a CD with my brother and sister as beneficiaries. My brother is now terminally ill and lives in Arizona. When I pass will my brother's wife inherit his portion?

Without knowing the terms and conditions related to the CD, no one can answer your question.

However, the financial institution that issued the CD would be better positioned to answer any and all such queries.

Give them a call, send an email, or even a snail mail question seeking an answer.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I live in CA and have a CD with my brother and sister as beneficiaries. My brother is now terminally ill and lives in Arizona. When I pass will my brother's wife inherit his portion?

That depends on exactly how the beneficiary designations are made. However, your sister-in-law is not one of your natural heirs and she only may inherit from her husband what he had at the time of his death. Unless the language of the designation is written in a way that would include her, his death ends his position as a beneficiary of the CD and she doesn't end up standing in his place. Thus, normally your CD would end up going entirely to your sister. But don't stand around wondering. Go to the bank and ask one of the bank representatives who know how the beneficiary designations are handled at the bank to find out for sure what will happen. If the result isn't what you want, you can change that now to get it right. Once you die or become legally incompetent it'll be too late to fix any problems in the beneficiary designations.

 

[adjusterjack]

I live in CA and have a CD with my brother and sister as beneficiaries. My brother is now terminally ill and lives in Arizona. When I pass will my brother's wife inherit his portion?

Nobody inherits anything while you are still alive.

If your brother dies first, all you need to do is change the beneficiary. That can be done quickly and easily.

If you die first, and your brother is still living, he gets his half and your sister gets the other half.

Once that happens it's his money and you have no further control over it because you are dead.

Then, when he dies, if he and his wife haven't spent it, she is likely to get the money.

 

[zddoodah]

I live in CA and have a CD with my brother and sister as beneficiaries. My brother is now terminally ill and lives in Arizona. When I pass will my brother's wife inherit his portion?

What does the beneficiary designation say?

If you want your sister-in-law to succeed to his beneficiary interest in your CD, then you should check the designation to ensure that's the result that will occur. If you don't want that result, then you should probably change the designation.

By the way, depending on how the designation is worded, the bank might issue a joint check to the beneficiaries or it might issue separate checks to each of them. Again, this is something you should verify.