Six specific words, spelled out in the statute
Under NRS § 100.085, unless a depositor specifically provides otherwise, using any of the following words or terms to designate an account's ownership indicates an intent to hold the account in joint tenancy: joint, joint account, jointly held, joint tenants, joint tenancy, or joint tenants with right of survivorship. This is an unusually explicit, enumerated list — rather than a general description of the concept, Nevada's statute names the exact trigger words directly, giving both depositors and banks a clear checklist for settling how an account is held.
Vesting is automatic once the form is joint tenancy
Making a deposit in the form of a joint tenancy vests title to the deposit in the survivor or survivors. The deposit may be paid or delivered to any of the named owners during their joint lifetimes, or to the survivor or survivors after the death of less than all of them, or the last to survive. Payment made this way is a valid and sufficient release and discharge of the bank — once it pays according to these rules, its obligation is satisfied.
The bank can pay regardless of another party's condition
A financial institution may pay sums on deposit in a multiple-party account to one or more of the parties, whether or not another party is disabled, incapacitated, or deceased at the time payment is requested, and whether or not the requesting party is the one who survives another party. The bank may also pay a deceased party's personal representative, or their heirs or devisees if there's no personal representative, once proof is presented showing the deceased party was actually the survivor of everyone else named on the account — unless the account was established without a right of survivorship in the first place.
The Uniform Account Form's checkbox structure
Nevada's statute (NRS § 111.783 through § 111.815) follows the broader Uniform Multiple-Person Accounts framework, offering a standardized account agreement form with clear checkbox options: a single-party account, a single-party account with a P.O.D. designation, a multiple-party account with right of survivorship, or a multiple-party account with both right of survivorship and a P.O.D. designation. Selecting the right box up front settles exactly how the account behaves at death, without needing to rely on the specific word-list described above for accounts that use this standardized form.
P.O.D. designations work on their own track
A P.O.D. (payable-on-death) designation can be added to either a single-party or a multiple-party account. At the death of the party — or the last surviving party, if there's more than one — ownership passes to the named P.O.D. beneficiaries and is not part of that party's probate estate. The named beneficiary has no rights to the account during the original owner's lifetime; they simply receive whatever remains once the owner (or last surviving joint owner) dies.
Real estate follows a related, but separate, framework
The same basic survivorship concept extends to real estate under Nevada's community property and joint tenancy statutes, though real property follows its own separate rules rather than the specific bank-account word list described here.
Life insurance and retirement accounts
Life insurance and retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA follow the same basic rule as P.O.D. bank accounts: 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.