Survivorship is the default
Under Indiana's Non-Probate Transfer Act, funds remaining on deposit in a joint account at a party's death belong to the surviving party or parties — unless there's clear and convincing evidence the account holders intended something different when the account was created. This puts the burden on anyone challenging the outcome, not on the surviving co-owner to prove they were entitled to it.
Only what's still there at death counts
The statute has an important limit built into its wording: survivorship applies only to sums remaining on deposit at the death of a party. An Indiana Court of Appeals case explored this boundary directly. In that dispute, one joint owner had removed the other's name from a set of certificates of deposit without her consent before he died. The court held that the removal alone didn't destroy her right of survivorship — but the case also highlighted the statute's stricter rule for funds that are actually withdrawn and spent before death: once money is gone from the account, it's no longer "remaining on deposit," and the survivorship right no longer reaches it.
A co-owner can't simply cash out to defeat survivorship
The same body of case law has established that one party to a joint account generally can't destroy the other's right of survivorship just by withdrawing all the funds without consent shortly before death. Courts have treated this kind of unilateral withdrawal skeptically, since it would otherwise let one joint owner unilaterally erase the survivorship arrangement both parties originally agreed to.
P.O.D. is a different structure entirely
A payable-on-death (P.O.D.) designation works differently from survivorship between joint owners. A P.O.D. beneficiary has no ownership interest in the account at all during the owner's life — no ability to withdraw funds, no say in how the account is used — and only receives whatever remains once the owner dies. A survivorship co-owner, by contrast, already holds a present interest in the account alongside the original owner while both are alive.
Life insurance and retirement accounts
Life insurance and retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA follow the ordinary rule: the named beneficiary receives the asset directly, outside probate, as long as they're alive when the owner dies. Either one becomes part of the probate estate only if no beneficiary was ever named, every named beneficiary predeceased the owner with no contingent beneficiary in place, or the policy or plan names the owner's own estate.