1. A bank or trust company may contract for an account, including a certificate of deposit, in the following form: “John Doe, pay on death to Henry Doe”. Such account shall, during the lifetime of the person or persons first named in the account, be the property of and under the sole control of the person or persons first named; and the first named person or persons shall be entitled to cancel, change, give away, or otherwise deal with the account as if no other person was named in the account.

2. At the death of all of the first named persons, the account shall become the property of the person or persons named as the “pay-on-death” person or persons. The bank or trust company is authorized to require proof of death and surrender of the evidence of account prior to withdrawal after the death of all of the first named persons.

Terms Used In Missouri Laws 362.471

  • Bank: means any corporation soliciting, receiving or accepting money, or its equivalent, on deposit as a business, whether the deposit is made subject to check, or is evidenced by a certificate of deposit, a passbook, a note, a receipt, or other writing, and specifically a commercial bank chartered under this chapter or a national bank located in this state. See Missouri Laws 362.010
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • following: when used by way of reference to any section of the statutes, mean the section next preceding or next following that in which the reference is made, unless some other section is expressly designated in the reference. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.

3. If there is more than one first named person who is a holder of the account, the first named persons shall be joint tenants with right of survivorship. If there is more than one pay-on-death person, the account shall be paid in equal shares to pay-on-death persons living at the time all first named persons have died. The joint tenancy referred to in this section shall be governed by section 362.470.

4. The bank or trust company may make such contractual terms as the parties may agree to with respect to an account contracted for under this section.

5. The form of account authorized by this section shall be valid and shall supersede and override the requirements of chapter 474 as to disposition of the property of decedents and the requirements as to testamentary dispositions by will.

6. Any payment made by a bank or trust company on an account as described in this section shall be entitled to full credit upon such payment without necessity of determining whether any other person shall have an interest in the account, unless the bank or trust company shall have been served with process by a court of competent jurisdiction restricting payment on the account in accordance with the terms of such process.

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