Property: nonprobate transfer of ownership

The law aims to make nonprobate security transfers more timely and accessible, including for charities, while limiting unnecessary collection of personal information.

What the law does ​

• Requires registering entities to start their beneficiary-notification process after learning that all security owners have died.
• Requires reasonable, good-faith efforts to notify each named beneficiary within 60 days, without initially disclosing private account details.
• Requires payment or transfer of a beneficiary’s designated share within 60 days after the beneficiary provides required documents, subject to specified legal holds or disputes.
• Lets beneficiaries receive securities or proceeds without opening an account with the registering entity.
• Bars entities from requiring co-beneficiaries to file claims together or wait for one another, except for an indivisible asset subject to a dispute.
• Establishes streamlined identity and claim documents for nonprofit corporations, charitable trusts, and federally tax-exempt entities, and generally bars demands for their staff’s or directors’ personal information.
• Requires written notice identifying the specific legal barrier and remaining requirements when federal or state law prevents compliance.

Who it affects ​

• Financial institutions and other registering entities holding securities registered with transfer-on-death beneficiaries.
• Individuals named to inherit securities outside probate.
• Nonprofit corporations, charitable trusts, and federally tax-exempt entities named as beneficiaries.
• Estates, creditors, heirs, and others asserting claims to transferred securities.

Context ​

The new rules apply to charitable and tax-exempt beneficiaries for final-owner deaths on or after January 1, 2027, and to other beneficiaries for deaths on or after January 1, 2028.