Mark your calendar – Review your beneficiary designations on your Retirement accounts. As life events occur, this may impact your beneficiary designations. Making sure your beneficiaries are up-to-date is important in case of any sort of medical emergency or accident. Making concrete plans is always the best option. Here are a few ways to keep track of what you’ll need to make beneficiary updates.
- Checklist to insure retirement assets are paid to your beneficiaries
- Obtain a copy of your current beneficiary form from your IRA Custodian/Trustee review for accuracy
- Review beneficiary designation and update if desired
- Document must be signed and dated by IRA Owner and financial organization
- Keep a copy of the signed and dated beneficiary form with your important documents
Additional Beneficiary Designations information
- The IRA owner may name primary and contingent beneficiaries, a primary beneficiary is the individual(s) or entity intended to receive the IRA assets upon the death of the IRA owner. Contingent beneficiaries will inherit the IRA assets if all primary beneficiaries die prior to the IRA owner.
- Most financial organizations require retirement beneficiary designation’s to be documented on a specific form of their choosing.
- Retirement beneficiaries are assigned to the retirement plan and not the specific IRA investment.
- Each plan may have a different beneficiary designation.
- IRA holder can name multiple primary(s) and contingent(s) with a different percentage allocated for each beneficiary
- IRA owner can name individual(s), church, school, trust, corporation or estate to inherit IRA assets. Provide as much information to the IRA custodian/trustee on beneficiary’s information. When naming an entity, provide name, address, and federal tax identification number on the designation of beneficiary document.
- Community property state law that govern marital property may require spousal waiver if the IRA owner names someone other than their spouse as the sole primary beneficiary.