In this chapter:

(1) ACCOUNT means a contract of deposit between a depositor and a financial institution, and includes a checking account, savings account, time deposit, certificate of deposit, and share account.
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Terms Used In Alabama Code 5-24-1

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • property: includes both real and personal property. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • United States: includes the territories thereof and the District of Columbia. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
(2) AGENT means a person authorized to make account transactions for a party.
(3) BENEFICIARY means a person named as one to whom sums on deposit in an account are payable on request after death of all parties or for whom a party is named as trustee.
(4) DEVISEE means any person designated in a will to receive a testamentary disposition of real or personal property.
(5) FINANCIAL INSTITUTION means an organization authorized to do business under state or federal laws relating to financial institutions, and includes a bank, trust company, savings bank, building and loan association, savings and loan company or association, and credit union.
(6) HEIRS means those persons, including surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.
(7) INCLUDES or INCLUDING means includes, but not limited to, or including, but not limited to.
(8) MULTIPLE-PARTY ACCOUNT means an account payable on request to one or more of two or more parties, whether or not a right of survivorship is mentioned.
(9) PARTY means a person who, by the terms of an account, has a present right, subject to request and the terms of the contract of deposit, to payment from the account other than as a beneficiary or agent.
(10) PAYMENT OF SUMS ON DEPOSIT includes withdrawal, payment to a party or third person pursuant to check or other request, and a pledge of sums on deposit by a party, or a set-off, reduction, or other disposition of all or part of an account pursuant to a pledge or a set-off.
(11) PERSON means an individual, a corporation, an organization, or other legal entity.
(12) PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status.
(13) POD DESIGNATION means the designation of:

a. A beneficiary in an account payable on request to one party during the party’s lifetime and on the party’s death to one or more beneficiaries, or to one or more parties during their lifetimes and on death of all of them to one or more beneficiaries; or
b. A beneficiary in an account in the name of one or more parties as trustee for one or more beneficiaries if the relationship is established by the terms of the account and there is no subject of the trust other than the sums on deposit in the account, whether or not payment to the beneficiary is mentioned.
(14) RECEIVE as it relates to notice to a financial institution, means receipt in the principal office of the financial institution in which the account is established, but if the terms of the account require notice at a particular place, in the place required.
(15) REQUEST means a request for payment complying with all terms of the account, including special requirements concerning necessary signatures and regulations of the financial institution; but, for purposes of this chapter, if terms of the account condition payment on advance notice, a request for payment is treated as immediately effective to commence the advance notice and a notice of intent to withdraw is treated as a request for payment.
(16) STATE includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States.
(17) SUCCESSORS means those persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under the decedent’s will or otherwise.
(18) SUMS ON DEPOSIT means the balance payable on an account, including interest and dividends earned, whether or not included in the current balance, and any deposit life insurance proceeds added to the account by reason of death of a party.
(19) TERMS OF THE ACCOUNT includes the deposit agreement and other terms and conditions, including the form, of the contract of deposit.
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