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Prob. Code, § 5203 · Chapter 2. General Provisions

Prob. Code, § 5203

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Words in substantially the following form in a signature card, passbook, contract, or instrument evidencing an account, or words to the same effect, executed before, on, or after July 1, 1990, create the following accounts:

(1) Joint account: “This account or certificate is owned by the named parties. Upon the death of any of them, ownership passes to the survivor(s).”

(2) P.O.D. account with single party: “This account or certificate is owned by the named party. Upon the death of that party, ownership passes to the named pay-on-death payee(s).”

(3) P.O.D. account with multiple parties: “This account or certificate is owned by the named parties. Upon the death of any of them, ownership passes to the survivor(s). Upon the death of all of them, ownership passes to the named pay-on-death payee(s).”

(4) Joint account of spouses with right of survivorship: “This account or certificate is owned by the named parties, who are spouses, and is presumed to be their community property. Upon the death of either of them, ownership passes to the survivor.”

(5) Community property account of spouses: “This account or certificate is the community property of the named parties who are spouses. The ownership during lifetime and after the death of a spouse is determined by the law applicable to community property generally and may be affected by a will.”

(6) Tenancy in common account: “This account or certificate is owned by the named parties as tenants in common. Upon the death of any party, the ownership interest of that party passes to the named pay-on-death payee(s) of that party or, if none, to the estate of that party.”

(b) Use of the form language provided in this section is not necessary to create an account that is governed by this part. If the contract of deposit creates substantially the same relationship between the parties as an account created using the form language provided in this section, this part applies to the same extent as if the form language had been used.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 50, Sec. 85. (SB 1005) Effective January 1, 2017.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=5203.
Text hash
sha256 fc8331bb087b831b9324ad3b540918ea45b5648decc4215dcd81a218b359b87d
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.