Your accounts will pass to your account beneficiaries regardless of your will

[Goonie]

Originally Posted by Khan

I will have to check with the credit union, but in general: can I assign a beneficiary to an existing CD?

I'm fairly certain that you'll be able to, as a CD is pretty much like any other bank or credit union account. You're not changing the terms or conditions of the CD, only adding a beneficiary.

[mathjak107]

make sure your state recognizes a brokerage tod ,(transfer on death) beneficiary request on taxable accounts .. some states still require anything except bank accounts to go thru probate despite having a beneficiary. iras and 401k's arent an issue

until last year new york was one such state. even though i had elected beneficiarys on my taxable brokerage account for decades technally the brokerage wasnt supposed to follow that request in new york.

the fact was the brokerage was registered in boston and so using their descretion they followed your request but didnt have to.

most states do accept brokerage tods on taxable accounts at this point but make sure your state does or you may find stuff going thru probate that you thought woulnt