how assets are transferred
transfers on death ensure an investor s securities and security related assets are passed on to the person or people they want them to be passed to without going through a lengthy probate process the uniform transfer on death securities registration act lets owners name beneficiaries for their stocks bonds or brokerage accounts with percentage allocations retirement accounts such as individual retirement accounts iras or 401 k s are not tod accounts these have named beneficiaries with regulations determining when beneficiaries can make withdrawals how much they can withdraw or how they are taxed a tod transfers all assets associated with an account to the named beneficiary 1required documentsproof of death this may be in the form of a death certificate current court letter of appointment stock power of attorney affidavit of domicile or other documents as proof of death proof of ownership documentation citing the owner and proof of tod intent a tod is used for stocks bonds deeds and similar assets 2type of account required documents depend on the type of account such as a single or joint account whether one or both account holders are deceased and whether the account is a trust account and the trustee or grantor is deceased unlike a tod a payable on death pod designation is an arrangement between a bank and a client that designates beneficiaries to receive assets after the client s death without going through probate a pod designation is usually associated with bank accounts and certificates of depositexamplean investor and active day trader has 50 000 in a margin account with their broker and stocks worth 200 000 in their brokerage account when this investor set up these accounts they filed a tod form stipulating who the assets should be transferred to upon death and in what percentages the account owner can update this form at any time assume the owner of the account is unmarried with two adult children they leave 50 of their brokerage account and stocks to their son and 50 to their daughter upon death and after the appropriate paperwork is filed half of the account balance and stocks will transfer to the son and the other half to the daughter 