Pay on Death (POD) and Transfer on Death (TOD)
Chapters in this video
- 0:00 POD for bank accounts and the control trap
- 1:58 TOD for brokerage accounts and the will-override rule
- 3:02 Probate bypass vs. estate tax: the separation exam loves
- 4:18 POD and TOD are not trusts: limits on incapacity and conditions
- 4:46 Product type decides the label, not the institution name
- 5:49 Rapid-fire exam recap
What this video covers
- Why Pay on Death (POD) applies to bank accounts, and Transfer on Death (TOD) applies to brokerage and securities accounts
- How the beneficiary designation overrides the will when the two conflict, and why the direct instruction always wins
- Why the account type (bank product vs. security), not the institution name, determines whether POD or TOD is the correct label
- That both POD and TOD bypass probate but do NOT reduce estate taxes, since assets remain in the owner's taxable estate
- Why the beneficiary has zero rights during the owner's lifetime, including no consent requirement for changes, withdrawals, or account closure
- That neither POD nor TOD is a trust: neither provides incapacity planning nor conditional distributions
- How exam questions swap POD and TOD labels across account types to test whether you are reading carefully
Read the full lesson, free
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