Christopher Yugo Times Columnist

Q: Do CDs have to be put in the name of the trust or can they just be made payable on death to the trust?

A: The best practice is to fund all the CDs into the trust. It makes things cleaner and more organized if the trust is fully funded. Remember, the more organized that you are, the smoother things will go for the family.

If you can’t fund the CDs into the name of the trust, then name the trust as Payable on Death (POD) beneficiary. That will at least get the funds into the trust should something bad happen.

You may be asking why wouldn’t you be able to fund the CD into the trust? One reason is that the bank may treat the changing of the title, and ownership, as an early put to the CD. If you pull the CD before it matures, the bank could hit you wit

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