Terms Used In Michigan Laws 490.56

  • Account: means a contract of deposit of funds between depositors and credit unions, and includes deposit accounts, members or share accounts and other like arrangements whether or not they may be characterized as refundable capital investments. See Michigan Laws 490.51
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • 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.
  • Party: means a person who, alone or in conjunction with another, by the terms of the account or as a surviving beneficiary of a trust account, has a present right of withdrawal in a multiple-party account. See Michigan Laws 490.51
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
  • Sums on deposit: means the balance payable on a multiple-party account including interest, dividends, and in addition any deposit life insurance proceeds added to the account by reason of the death of a party. See Michigan Laws 490.51
   A multiple-party account payable to 2 or more persons, jointly or severally, which does not expressly provide that there is no right of survivorship, though there is no mention of survivorship or joint tenancy, is presumed to be a survivorship account. At the death of a party, sums on deposit in a survivorship account belong to the surviving party or parties as against the estate of the decedent. Where there are 2 or more survivors, their respective ownerships shall be in proportion to their previous net contributions augmented by an equal share for each survivor of any interest the decedent may have owned in the account immediately before his death, plus the proceeds of insurance on decedent’s life paid to the account. The right of survivorship continues between survivors.