Missouri Laws 461.028 – Registration of property, including accounts and securities in beneficiary ..
1. Property may be held or registered in beneficiary form by including in the name in which the property is held or registered a direction to transfer the property on death of the owner to a beneficiary designated by the owner.
2. Property is registered in beneficiary form by showing on the account record, security certificate or instrument evidencing ownership of the property the name of the owner, and the estate by which two or more joint owners hold the property, followed in substance by the words “transfer on death to ______ (name of beneficiary)”. In lieu of the words “transfer on death to” the words “pay on death to” or the abbreviation “TOD” or “POD” may be used.
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 461.028
- 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
- 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.
- Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- 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
3. A transfer on death direction may only be placed on an account record, security certificate or instrument evidencing ownership of property by the transferring entity or a person authorized by the transferring entity.
4. A transfer on death direction transfers the owner’s interest in the property to the designated beneficiary, effective on the owner’s death, if the property is registered in beneficiary form prior to the death of the owner, or if the request to make the transfer on death direction is delivered in proper form to the transferring entity prior to the owner’s death.
5. An account record, security certificate or instrument evidencing ownership of property that contains a transfer on death direction written as part of the name in which the property is held or registered, is conclusive evidence in the absence of fraud, duress, undue influence or evidence of clerical mistake by the transferring entity that the direction was regularly made by the owner and accepted by the transferring entity, and was not revoked or changed prior to the death giving rise to the transfer; and the transferring entity shall have no obligation to retain the original writing, if any, by which the owner caused the property to be registered in beneficiary form, more than six months after the transferring entity has mailed or delivered to the owner, at the address shown on the registration, an account statement, certificate or instrument that shows the manner in which the property is held or registered in beneficiary form.