705.04 (2). Unless the context indicates otherwise, “party” includes a guardian, conservator, personal representative or assignee, including an attaching creditor, of a party. (7) “Payment” of sums on deposit includes withdrawal, payment on check or other order of a party, any pledge of sums on deposit by a party and any setoff, or reduction or other disposition of all or part of an account pursuant to a pledge. (8) “P.O.D. account” means an account payable on request to one person during lifetime and on the person’s death to one or more P.O.D. beneficiaries, or to one or more persons during their lifetimes and on the death of all of them to one or more P.O.D. beneficiaries. It includes an account in the name of one or more parties as trustee for one or more beneficiaries where the relationship is established by the form of the account and the deposit agreement with the financial institution and there is no subject of the trust other than the sums on deposit in the account. It includes a marital account for which a party named one or more P.O.D. beneficiaries for that party’s interest. (9) “P.O.D. Beneficiary” means a person designated on a P.O.D. account as one to whom all or part of the account is payable on request after the death of one or more parties. (10) “Request” means a proper request for withdrawal, or a check or other order for payment, which complies with all conditions of the account, including special requirements concerning necessary signatures and regulations of the financial institution. Unless the signature card, passbook, contract or instrument evidencing the account clearly provides to the contrary, a request by all parties to a joint or marital account is required for payment if the account is designated with their names conjunctively joined by the word “and”. If the financial institution conditions with-
May 22, 2026, are designated by NOTES. (Published 5-22-26)
705.01
SPECIAL ACCOUNTS; TRANSFERS ON DEATH
drawal or payment on advance notice, for purposes of this subchapter the request for withdrawal or payment is treated as immediately effective and a notice of intent to withdraw is treated as a request for withdrawal. (11) “Sums on deposit” means the balance payable on a multiple-party account including interest, dividends, and any deposit life insurance proceeds added to the account by reason of the death of a party. History: 1973 c. 291; 1979 c. 110 s. 60 (11); 1983 a. 186; 1989 a. 331; 1993 a. 112, 486. The definition of “party” in sub. (6) relates only to parties to an account and has nothing to do with the legal standing of named beneficiaries to sue the depositor’s agent for negligence in failing to maintain a payable-on-death account. Brooks v. Bank of Wisconsin Dells, 161 Wis. 2d 39, 467 N.W.2d 187 (Ct. App. 1991). A personal representative is not a “party” to an account held as a “joint account” by the decedent and another who survives; a bank that disburses the funds of the joint account to the personal representative is not entitled to immunity under s.