How many Bank Accounts?

[SueInBoston]

I have a trust and was also advised to have POD on my bank accounts for the reason that the beneficiary can access the funds in my account quicker to handle financial needs without needing the trust or estate to settle.

 

[barkley]

I have a trust and was also advised to have POD on my bank accounts for the reason that the beneficiary can access the funds in my account quicker to handle financial needs without needing the trust or estate to settle.

does the trustee who will settle your estate know this? i ask b/c my mom did this and as the trustee i was left in the situation of having to deal with the debts of the estate/cost of funeral/final taxes with little left in the actual trust. p.o.d. funds become the property of the people listed on the accounts upon the death of the of the owner so it's one thing for the trustee to deal with everything if they are the sole beneficiary of the estate or anyone else listed on those accounts is cooperative and allows those funds to first be used for necessary expenses-if not then it's allot of work for the trustee. on the flip side-if the trust is written up to leave to multiple beneficiaries and the only p.o.d. is the trustee then be aware that that money is legally THEIRS upon your death and legally they could keep it and not distribute it according to your wishes (i was the successor trustee due to the death less than a year prior to my mom's death of the trustee she had named-i have no doubt that the original trustee convinced my mother to set up p.o.d.'s on all her accounts with the purpose of establishing legal ownership of her assetts upon her death and ignoring her estate plan).

 

[jimmymc]

At 19, I think two accounts are plenty, checking and savings. The emergency fund and general savings can stay together.

 

[Skywalker3]

Currently, both kids each have a savings and checking account, both at the same bank. My husband and I do too, but I'm considering getting a separate account for things like cash apps, etc.
I am still not used to or familiar with using all the cash apps, zelle, venmo, all of that, but that's how a lot of folks are requesting money now, and I don't feel comfortable having those tied to my main bank accounts, so I am thinking of opening another account just for those. But maybe I'm just being old fashioned. Anyone have any issues w those? Since I'm on my DD's checking account, I do see that she transfers to Venmo all the time, so far, no issues.

 

[Eastern]

a cautionary tale on overdraft protection-

oldest's wallet was stolen and in less than 45 minutes the debit card was used to drain the checking account at which time it began draining the associated savings via overdraft protection (and if a person has more than 1 savings account they need to see if that protection rolls over into each account b/c it can become a domino effect of draining each account one by one). fortunatly i had access online and while i was waiting for customer service (evening hours on a weekend) i was able to transfer the remaining savings into an unassociated account of my own but it took a good few weeks for the bank to research and verify the fraudulent activity in order to reimburse the checking and savings (and were only able to do that b/c the theft was via a debit card with a mastercard tie-in). we dropped overdraft protection after that-and reminded everyone to just be aware of how much is in their checking account to prevent the need for it.

I never take overdraft protection. You can also set a limit on how much can be withdrawn or transferred at once. I did this after my debit card was hacked.

 

[Eastern]

I have a trust and was also advised to have POD on my bank accounts for the reason that the beneficiary can access the funds in my account quicker to handle financial needs without needing the trust or estate to settle.

What is the point of having a trust if you are going to title assets in an individual's name? I was told to title all property in the name of the trust. The trustee would pay the bills and distribute the remainder to the beneficiaries.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

I work in finance, so I probably over complicate things.

We have one checking account to pay bills. We have a few Discover savings accounts for various needs (quarterly taxes, business expenses, and emergency fund.)

Most of our money is invested with Fidelity. IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, TOD accounts, and our funds for Disney vacations. We also fund our boys’ 529s each month and we invest funds in a NQ Fidelity account for them; they are the beneficiaries, but we remain the owners. I don’t trust UTMAs and UGMAs; or i don’t yet trust my boys.

 

[_19disnA]

Clearly later in life as you have more investments and/or retirement accounts, things can get complicated. However, the OP is asking about their son in college who is just starting out. I can't see any reason to make things so complicated for that situation they would need more than a checking/savings account.