Retirement Plan Beneficiaries

Keeping your beneficiary information complete and up to date is an important planning step to be sure your money goes where you want it to upon your death.

Not a light topic, but still one to discuss.  There are a number of events that should cause you to review the beneficiaries of your retirement plans and insurance policies.  Each of these accounts has its own order determined by the plan administrator or policy language, but these are some general rules to follow.

  1. A change in marital status. There have been many cases of a former spouse getting money instead of the current one.  You should also update it if you are recently married to avoid inadvertently skipping your spouse.
  2. The birth or adoption of a new child.  Check to be sure you know how “step” children are treated by the plans an policies; some don’t consider them “children”.
  3. The death of anyone who was named a beneficiary or contingent beneficiary.

Also, if you want to be sure that all assets are distributed exactly to your wishes, be sure you have a will in place, and consider a revocable living trust, which allows for simple transfer of your assets at your death according to your wishes.