Are nested catches within promises required?

No, they won’t. They only bubble up to the result promise if you chain your promises, for which you need to return the inner promises created by the callbacks. Otherwise the outer promise cannot wait for them and will not know when/how they resolve (whether they fulfill or reject).

temporaryUserModel.findOne({email: req.body.email}).then(tempUser => {
    if (tempUser) {
        return temporaryUserModel.findOneAndUpdate({_id: tempUser.toJSON()._id}, user);
//      ^^^^^^
    } else {
        return temporaryUserModel(user).save();
//      ^^^^^^
    }
}).then((doc) => {
// no need to duplicate this code when you chain anyway
    return res.status(200).json({
        status: 'Success',
        data: {url: planOpted.chargifySignupUrl}
    });
}).catch(err => error(err, res));