A securities TOD law that came first
New Hampshire's Uniform Transfer on Death (Security) Registration Act, RSA Chapter 563-C, lets stocks, bonds, and brokerage accounts be registered in beneficiary form — a mechanism that predates the state's much newer real-property TOD deed law by a considerable margin. This means New Hampshire investors have long had a straightforward way to name a beneficiary directly on a securities account, letting those assets pass automatically at death without probate, well before the same basic concept became available for real estate in 2024.
Joint bank accounts pass by survivorship
New Hampshire follows the standard multi-party account framework most Uniform Probate Code states use for bank accounts: a joint account set up with survivorship language passes to the surviving owner or owners automatically at death, without a probate proceeding for those funds.
P.O.D. designations work the same basic way
A payable-on-death (P.O.D.) designation on a New Hampshire bank account lets the owner retain full control during their own lifetime — the named beneficiary has no rights to the account while the owner is alive, and can't touch the funds until the owner dies. Once the owner dies, the beneficiary claims whatever remains directly from the bank, without needing to go through probate court.
Real estate followed a very different timeline
The gap between New Hampshire's older securities TOD registration and its brand-new real property TOD deed illustrates something worth understanding: different asset classes in the same state can end up on genuinely different legislative timelines. Someone who assumed that because their New Hampshire brokerage account has long supported beneficiary designations, their house automatically did too, would have been mistaken until relatively recently. See our guide to the New Hampshire transfer-on-death deed for how that newer real-estate tool actually works, including its distinctive 60-day recording deadline.
Real estate follows its own separate framework
The same basic survivorship concept extends to real estate under New Hampshire's joint tenancy statute, though real property follows its own separate rules, including the state's confirmed allowance for a joint tenant to unilaterally sever their own share.
Life insurance and retirement accounts
Life insurance and retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA follow the same basic beneficiary-designation rule as P.O.D. bank accounts and TOD securities: 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.