Benefit administrators, 401(k) vendors, recordkeepers and benefits professionals regularly recommend that participants in qualified retirement plans periodically review and update their beneficiary ...

Properly designating beneficiaries for assets that transfer on death is one of the simplest, and most commonly overlooked, methods to maximize the efficiency of a client’s estate plan. As a recent ...

A federal district court has ruled for a second time on litigation arising from a dispute over verbal and written beneficiary designations. A thorny Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ...

An often-neglected area in the world of benefit plan administration is the beneficiary designation form. Many participants complete their beneficiary designations incorrectly because they don’t read ...

What happens to your financial accounts when you pass away? They will be passed along to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated for that account – but what happens when your beneficiaries are out ...

While in the process of divorcing, your attorney will remind you that you cannot change beneficiary designations on your accounts until the divorce is finalized. It is not uncommon to want to put the ...

If you have an individual retirement account, do you recall filling out a beneficiary designation form? That’s the document that allows you to direct the IRA custodian to transfer your IRA to people ...

When you die, anything that you own which has titling is either given to your beneficiaries via your will or via a will substitute. Any titled asset which does not have a will substitute goes into ...

You've kept your will updated regularly to make sure your assets are distributed according to your wishes upon death. Have you done the same thing with your beneficiary designations? If not, your ...

In the area of employee benefits, we have learned that nothing is simple. Even beneficiary designation forms can create significant issues. Employee benefit administrators, 401(k) vendors, ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Bob Carlson researches all facets of retirement finances. A beneficiary check up is an important part of your regular financial ...