Bank of America Trust Account: What the Bank Requires

Can a Trust Own a Bank of America Account?

Yes. The Deposit Agreement files a trust account under accounts for business or non-personal use, and the estate guide confirms an account may be in a formal trust’s name.

“You may open an account solely for business or non-personal use if the account owner is a corporation, unincorporated association, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, fiduciary, partnership, sole proprietorship or other non-individual entity. A fiduciary account may include an estate account, trust account, representative payee account, guardianship or conservatorship account, or other similar type of account.”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement and Disclosures (effective May 15, 2026), PDF p. 5

“An account may be in the name of a formal trust. Trustee(s) are named on the account to control the assets of the trust.”

Bank of America Estate Services Client Resource Guide, p. 6

Because the agreement places trust accounts with non-personal accounts, ask before opening whether your living trust account will be priced as a personal or a business product. The agreement does not say.

What Documents Bank of America Asks For

The agreement names no certification form. It says every signer must prove authority, and the bank may refuse a document that is not on its own form.

“We may refuse to recognize any resolution or other legal document affecting the account that is not on our form or that appears to us to be incomplete or improperly executed.”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 5

“Certification of a person’s authority to act on behalf of the entity”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 4 (possible requirements for non-personal accounts)

“To help us verify your identity and eligibility for account ownership, we may require one or more valid forms of identification, including at least one government-issued photo ID.”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 4

Bring a certification of trust signed by the trustee, your photo ID, and the trust agreement itself in case the banker asks for pages, and expect to complete the bank’s own paperwork on top of it.

Changing a Trustee May Mean a New Account

This is the rule most people do not expect. To change a trust designation, the bank may make you close the account and open a new one.

“We may require you to close the account in order to remove a co-owner, terminate a joint ownership or change a payable on death or trust designation.”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 4

A new account means new account numbers, new checks and redirected automatic payments. If you expect to restate your trust or change trustees soon, do that before you open the account.

When You Die

Bank of America’s estate guide lists trust accounts as accounts that do not go through the estate process, because the successor trustee named in the trust takes over.

“An account may be in the name of a formal trust. Trustee(s) are named on the account to control the assets of the trust. Successor Trustees are listed in the trust agreement so they can carry on the role of the trustee(s) if the current trustee(s) are no longer able to perform the duty.”

Bank of America Estate Services Client Resource Guide, p. 6

“When we receive a notice that an owner or signer has died or been declared incompetent, we may place a hold on your account and refuse to accept deposits or permit withdrawals, until we receive documents we reasonably request to verify the owner or signer’s death or incompetence, and the authority and identity of the successor, guardian, conservator, executor, or personal representative.”

Bank of America Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 25

The guide gives the Estate Servicing Operations team at 888.689.4466 as the starting point, and says documents can be uploaded to Estate Services online.

A Trust Account or a POD Account?

Bank of America treats an account titled “in trust for” someone as a payable-on-death account, which pays the named people directly.

“A POD account is payable on your death (or the death of the last surviving co-owner) to one or more payees named in the title of the account. When the title of an account includes language like "in trust for (ITF)," "transfer on death (TOD)" or similar language, the account is treated as a POD account.”

Bank of America Account Ownership Changes page

A POD account is simpler and changeable online through the bank’s beneficiary pages. An account owned by the trust keeps the money under the trust’s instructions after your death.

What Bank of America Does Not Publish

Bank of America’s published documents do not say how to open a trust account (branch appointment or otherwise), the name or number of any Bank of America trust certification form, whether a co-trustee can act alone, whether the account uses your Social Security number or a trust EIN, or whether a living trust account is priced as a personal or a business account. Ask those questions when you book the appointment, and ask for any trust form by name so you can read it before you sign. Bring the trust agreement itself even if the bank says it will rely on a certification, because a banker who asks for a page is easier to satisfy on the spot.

If you already have an account at Bank of America, ask whether it can be retitled into the trust rather than closed and reopened. A retitled account keeps its number, so checks and automatic payments keep working.

What Florida Law Lets You Show Instead of Your Whole Trust

Florida lets a trustee hand a bank a certification of trust instead of the trust instrument. The certification states that the trust exists and the date it was signed, who created it, who the current trustee is and the trustee’s address, the trustee’s powers, whether the trust can be revoked and by whom, whether co-trustees must act together, and how the trust takes title to property. It does not have to show who inherits.

The certification must say that the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that makes it wrong. A bank that relies on it without knowing it is wrong is protected, so the bank can act on it without reading the trust. A bank can still ask for the pages of the trust that name the trustee and give the trustee power to act in the transaction at hand.

A certification keeps your beneficiaries and their shares private. When a bank asks for the whole trust, the banker is reading your family’s inheritance plan.

How Much of a Trust Account the FDIC Insures

The FDIC insures trust deposits at $250,000 for each beneficiary the grantor names, counting at most five, so up to $1,250,000 per grantor at one bank. A married couple who are both grantors can reach twice that. Payable-on-death accounts and accounts owned by the trust at the same bank are added together toward the limit, and a beneficiary who inherits only if someone else has already died does not count toward the five.

That makes the list of beneficiaries in the trust the number that decides coverage. A trust that leaves everything to one child is insured to $250,000 per grantor at each bank, however many accounts it holds there.

Trust Accounts at Other Banks

• Chase Trust Account: What Chase Requires to Open One
• Wells Fargo Trust Account: What the Bank Requires
• Ally Bank Trust Account: How to Open One, Step by Step
• How to Open a Trust Account at a Bank
• Trust account requirements at 185 banks, brokers and insurers (dataset)
• How to fund a trust in Florida
• Does my trust need a tax return or an EIN?

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The trust restated a month after opening. A couple opens a Bank of America savings account for their trust and then restates the trust to add a second successor trustee. The Deposit Agreement allows the bank to require them to close that account and open a new one to change the trust designation, so the restatement is better done before the account is opened.

The POD account that bypasses the trust. A father titles his Bank of America checking account “in trust for” his son, meaning to leave everything through his trust. Bank of America treats that title as a POD account, so the balance would go to the son directly, outside the trust’s plan for the son’s two children.

Sources of Law

• Bank of America Deposit Agreement and Disclosures, effective May 15, 2026, form 91-11-2000B (05/26), PDF pp. 4, 5, 25 (https://www.bankofamerica.com/salesservices/deposits/resources/deposit-agreements/).
• Bank of America Estate Services Client Resource Guide, pp. 3, 5, 6 (https://images.em.bankofamerica.com/estateservices/Estate_Services_Resource_Guide.pdf).
• Bank of America Account Ownership Changes page (https://www.bankofamerica.com/signature-services/account-ownership-changes/).
• Fla. Stat. §736.1017 (annotated) (certification of trust; contents under subsection (1)(a) to (h); signed by any trustee under (2); statement that the trust has not been revoked or amended under (3); dispositive terms not required under (4); excerpts on request under (5); reliance protection under (6) and (7)).
• 12 C.F.R. §330.10 (FDIC coverage of formal and informal revocable trust accounts; $250,000 times the number of eligible beneficiaries, up to five, aggregated across trust accounts of the same grantor; contingent beneficiaries excluded under (c)(2)(ii)).
• Bank documents retrieved September 24 and 25, 2026, and read again for this page on September 28, 2026. Banks change their terms; confirm the current version with the bank.

Updated on September 28, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. StepUpLaw is not affiliated with Bank of America, N.A., and the quotations are from the bank’s own published documents. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.