Opinion ID: 1736103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Payable-on-Death Accounts

Text: Reinbrecht's report identifies accounts at First Federal Lincoln Bank and Nebraska State Bank which were payable to Tipp upon Monroe's death. The record includes the customer agreement for the First Federal Lincoln Bank account dated October 2, 2000, identifying Monroe as the Payable on Death Party and Tipp as the Payable on Death Designee. There are no account records for the Nebraska State Bank account, but the parties do not dispute Reinbrecht's characterization of both accounts as bearing a POD designation. The county court ordered Tipp to pay the proceeds of these accounts to the estate. Under Nebraska law of nonprobate transfers, an account is defined as a contract of deposit between a depositor and a financial institution and includes checking accounts and certificates of deposit. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 30-2716(1) (Reissue 1995). Such accounts may have a POD designation. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 30-2718(a) (Reissue 1995). When an account bears a POD designation, [o]n death of the sole party ... sums on deposit belong to the surviving beneficiary .... § 30-2723(b)(2). A right of survivorship arising from ... a POD designation ... may not be altered by will. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 30-2724(b) (Reissue 1995). While the trust agreement provided that Monroe, as grantor, may have various death benefits made payable to the Trustee, it did not require that he do so. He was free to make Tipp the POD designee in her individual capacity. The customer agreement for the First Federal Lincoln Bank account identifies Tipp by name with no reference to her representative capacity as successor trustee. There is no evidence that the POD designation on the Nebraska State Bank account identified Tipp as the POD designee in her representative capacity as trustee. We conclude that there is no competent evidence upon which to find that the assets held in the two POD accounts were intended by Monroe to be a part of the trust estate upon his death, and the county court there-fore erred in ordering Tipp to pay the proceeds of these accounts to the estate.