Can real estate be transferred to a pay on death account – POD?
Generally speaking, POD stands for “pay on death”. I believe it is usually reserved for bank and brokerage accounts. A “pay on death” account is a type of account intended to avoid probate so that in the event of the demise of the primary account holder, the assets would automatically be transferred, without the need for probate (which incidently is explained elsewhere in some of the Q & A’s on the site) to the designated beneficiary. Title to real estate is very much a “local” matter. The laws, rules, conventions, and terminology differ dramatically from state to state, and you will have to address this question with a real estate attorney in your state. If your objective is to avoid probate, there are other approaches which can be used under different names, but which have a similar effect. For example, the house could be owned jointly as “John Doe and Sam Smith, joint tenants with right of survivorship”. On John’s death, Sam would become the owner of the property automatically. The
