The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 9: Commerce and Trade

Chapter 134: Transfer on Death Security Registration

• § 4351. Definitions

  As used in this chapter:

  (1) “Beneficiary form” means a registration of a security that indicates the present owner of the security and the intention of the owner regarding the person who will become the owner of the security upon the death of the owner.

  (2) “Devisee” means any person designated in a will to receive a disposition of real or personal property.

  (3) “Heirs” means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.

  (4) “Person” means an individual, a corporation, an organization, or other legal entity.

  (5) “Personal representative” includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status.

  (6) “Property” includes both real and personal property or any interest therein and means anything that may be the subject of ownership.

  (7) “Register,” including its derivatives, means to issue a certificate showing the ownership of a certificated security or, in the case of an uncertificated security, to initiate or transfer an account showing ownership of securities.

  (8) “Registering entity” means a person who originates or transfers a security title by registration and includes a broker maintaining security accounts for customers and a transfer agent or other person acting for or as an issuer of securities.

  (9) “Security” means a share, participation, or other interest in property in a business or in an obligation of an enterprise or other issuer, and includes a certificated security, an uncertificated security, and a security account.

  (10) “Security account” means:

  (A) a reinvestment account associated with a security, a securities account with a broker, a cash balance in a brokerage account, cash, interest, earnings, or dividends earned or declared on a security in an account, a reinvestment account or a brokerage account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner’s death; or

  (B) a cash balance or other property held for or due to the owner of a security as a replacement for or product of an account security, whether or not credited to the account before the owner’s death.

  (11) “State” includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4352. Registration in beneficiary form; sole or joint tenancy ownership

  Only individuals whose registration of a security shows sole ownership by one individual or multiple ownership by two or more with right of survivorship, rather than as tenants in common, may obtain registration in beneficiary form. Multiple owners of a security registered in beneficiary form hold as joint tenants with right of survivorship as tenants by the entireties and not as tenants in common. In the case of community property established while the owners were residents of a community property state, the security continues its character as community property in this State unless it is subsequently reregistered by its owners. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4353. Registration in beneficiary form; applicable law

  A security may be registered in beneficiary form if the form is authorized by this or a similar statute of the state of organization of the issuer or registering entity, the location of the registering entity’s principal office, the office of its transfer agent or its office making the registration, or by this or a similar statute of the law of the state listed as the owner’s address at the time of registration. A registration governed by the law of a jurisdiction in which this or similar legislation is not in force or was not in force when a registration in beneficiary form was made is nevertheless presumed to be valid and authorized as a matter of contract law. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4354. Origination of registration in beneficiary form

  A security, whether evidenced by certificate or account, is registered in beneficiary form when the registration includes a designation of a beneficiary to take the ownership at the death of the owner or the deaths of all multiple owners. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4355. Form of registration in beneficiary form

  Registration in beneficiary form may be shown by the words “transfer on death” or the abbreviation “TOD” or by the words “pay on death” or the abbreviation “POD” after the name of the registered owner and before the name of a beneficiary. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4356. Effect of registration in beneficiary form

  The designation of a TOD beneficiary on a registration in beneficiary form has no effect on ownership until the owner’s death. A registration of a security in beneficiary form may be canceled or changed at any time by the sole owner or all then surviving owners without the consent of the beneficiary. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4357. Ownership on death of owner

  On death of a sole owner or the last to die of all multiple owners, ownership of securities registered in beneficiary form passes to the beneficiary or beneficiaries who survive all owners. On proof of death of all owners and compliance with any applicable requirements of the registering entity, a security registered in beneficiary form may be reregistered in the name of the beneficiary or beneficiaries who survived the death of all owners. Until division of the security after the death of all owners, multiple beneficiaries surviving the death of all owners hold their interests as tenants in common. If no beneficiary survives the death of all owners, the security belongs to the estate of the deceased sole owner or the estate of the last to die of all multiple owners. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4358. Protection of registering entity

  (a) A registering entity is not required to offer or to accept a request for security registration in beneficiary form. If a registration in beneficiary form is offered by a registering entity, the owner requesting registration in beneficiary form assents to the protections given to the registering entity by this chapter.

  (b) By accepting a request for registration of a security in beneficiary form, the registering entity agrees that the registration will be implemented on death of the deceased owner as provided in this chapter.

  (c) A registering entity is discharged from all claims to a security by the estate, creditors, heirs, or devisees of a deceased owner if it registers a transfer of the security in accordance with section 4357 of this chapter and does so in good faith reliance (i) on the registration, (ii) on this chapter, and (iii) on information provided to it by affidavit of the personal representative of the deceased owner, or by the surviving beneficiary or by the surviving beneficiary’s representatives, or other information available to the registering entity. The protections of this chapter do not extend to a reregistration or payment made after a registering entity has received written notice from any claimant to any interest in the security objecting to implementation of a registration in beneficiary form. No other notice or other information available to the registering entity affects its right to protection under this chapter.

  (d) The protection provided by this chapter to the registering entity of a security does not affect the rights of beneficiaries in disputes between themselves and other claimants to ownership of the security transferred or its value or proceeds. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)

• § 4359. Nontestamentary transfer on death

  (a) A transfer on death resulting from a registration in beneficiary form by an owner whose last domicile was in this State is effective by reason of the contract recording the registration between the owner and the registering entity and this chapter and is not testamentary. “Nonprobate transfer” means a transfer described in this subsection.

  (b) A transferee of a nonprobate transfer is subject to liability to any probate estate of the decedent for allowed claims against that estate and statutory allowances to the decedent’s spouse and children to the extent the estate is insufficient to satisfy those claims and allowances. The liability of a nonprobate transferee may not exceed the value of nonprobate transfers received by that transferee.

  (c) Nonprobate transferees are liable for the insufficiency described in subsection (b) of this section in the following order of priority:

  (1) a transferee designated in the decedent’s will or any other government instrument, as provided in the instrument;

  (2) the trustee of a trust serving as the principal nonprobate instrument in the decedent’s estate plan as shown by its designation as devisee of the decedent’s residuary estate or by other facts or circumstances, to the extent of the value of the nonprobate transfer received;

  (3) other nonprobate transferees, in proportion to the values received.

  (d) A provision made in one instrument may direct the apportionment of the liability among the nonprobate transferees taking under that or any other governing instrument. If a provision in one instrument conflicts with a provision in another, the later one prevails.

  (e) Upon due notice to a nonprobate transferee, the liability imposed by this section is enforceable in proceedings in the Probate Division of the Superior Court in this State, whether or not the transferee is located in this State.

  (f) A proceeding under this section may not be commenced unless the personal representative of the decedent’s estate has received a written demand for the proceeding from the surviving spouse or a child, to the extent that statutory allowances are affected, or a creditor. If the personal representative declines or fails to commence a proceeding after demand, a person making demand may commence the proceeding in the name of the decedent’s estate, at the expense of the person making the demand and not of the estate. A personal representative who declines in good faith to commence a requested proceeding incurs no personal liability for declining.

  (g) A proceeding under this section must be commenced within one year after the decedent’s death, but a proceeding on behalf of a creditor whose claim was allowed after proceedings challenging disallowance of the claim may be commenced within 60 days after final allowance of the claim.

  (h) Unless a written notice asserting that a decedent’s estate is insufficient to pay allowed claims and statutory allowances has been received from the decedent’s personal representative, a trustee receiving a nonprobate transfer is released from liability under this section with respect to any assets to the trust’s beneficiaries. Each beneficiary to the extent of the distribution received becomes liable for the amount of the trustee’s liability attributable to those assets received by the beneficiary. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1; amended 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011.)

• § 4360. Terms, conditions, and forms for registration

  (a) A registering entity offering to accept registrations in beneficiary form may establish the terms and conditions under which it will receive requests (i) for registrations in beneficiary form and (ii) for implementation of registrations in beneficiary form, including requests for cancellation of previously registered TOD beneficiary designations and requests for reregistration to effect a change of beneficiary. The terms and conditions so established may provide for proving death, avoiding or resolving any problems concerning fractional shares, designating primary and contingent beneficiaries, and substituting a named beneficiary’s descendants to take in the place of the named beneficiary in the event of the beneficiary’s death. Substitution may be indicated by appending to the name of the primary beneficiary the letters LDPS, standing for “lineal descendants per stirpes.” This designation substitutes a deceased beneficiary’s descendants who survive the owner for a beneficiary who does not so survive, the descendants to be identified and to share in accordance with the law of the beneficiary’s domicile at the owner’s death governing inheritance by descendants of an intestate. Other forms of identifying beneficiaries who are to take on one or more contingencies, and rules for providing proofs and assurances needed to satisfy reasonable concerns by registering entities regarding conditions and identities relevant to accurate implementation of registrations in beneficiary form, may be contained in a registering entity’s terms and conditions.

  (b) The following are illustrations of registrations in beneficiary form that a registering entity may authorize:

  (1) Sole owner-sole beneficiary: John S Brown TOD (or POD) John S Brown Jr.

  (2) Multiple owners-sole beneficiary: John S Brown Mary B Brown JT TEN TOD John S Brown Jr.

  (3) Multiple owners-primary and secondary (substituted) beneficiaries: John S Brown Mary B Brown JT TEN TOD John S Brown Jr SUB BENE Peter Q Brown or John S Brown Mary B Brown JT TEN TOD John S Brown Jr LDPS.

  (c) At the time of registration, a registering entity shall provide to each owner of the TOD account a written disclosure statement disclosing the survivorship features and consequences of establishing the TOD account. The fact that an owner did not receive a statement shall not cause the designation of a TOD beneficiary to be ineffectual. (Added 1999, No. 23, § 1.)