What is a Beneficiary?

Usually, a beneficiary is an individual that receives proceeds and/or benefits from something. In the insurance industry, individuals commonly use the language beneficiary in reference to the recipient of life insurance proceeds. Those that receive distributions from a will, trust, annuity, or pension account, are additionally beneficiaries.

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Principal Points:

A beneficiary is an individual that receives the benefits of something left to them by another individual.
Individuals or associations (like charities, non-profits, or trusts) could be beneficiaries.
There can be beneficiaries for life-insurance policies, wills, trusts, and occasionally retirement accounts.
Designating loved ones as beneficiaries is a method of safeguarding their financial future.
When there are minor children that are beneficiaries, it might be required to set a trust up for them.

Understanding Beneficiaries

You can designate any individual or entity as a beneficiary. They are the entities or individuals that receive the payments or remitments from your will and/or accounts. You can place various stipulations on the payments of funds, like a minimum age provision. Beneficiaries don’t have to be people. They can be associations such as charities, trusts, or non-profit organizations.

You might need to designate beneficiaries for the following reasoning:

You have a life insurance policy and are required to designate an individual to receive the proceeds.
You would like to designate an individual to receive trust fund allocations.
You have a retirement account, and you want an individual to designate an individual to inherit the funds.
You are required to decide who is going to receive your assets through your will.
You want to designate an individual to receive annuity payments should you pass away.

Who Do You Need to Designate as a Beneficiary?

People typically designate individuals that are closest to them as their beneficiaries. Some instances of beneficiaries are:

Close members of your family such as a spouse or children
Other loved ones or trusted friends
The guardians of your children
A trust
A charity or non-profit organization you wish to support

When designating beneficiaries, you need to think about if people in your life would be in economic hardship should you pass away. If they would, this is a perfect reason of taking care of them by designating them as a beneficiary. This is particularly true in cases of life insurance. One of the reasons individuals typically pay for life insurance is to be sure that their loved ones are still able to manage everyday costs in the event of their passing. A lot of parents purchase life insurance policies as a security net for providing for their children, whether minor or adult.

Retirement plans and some pensions enable you to designate beneficiaries. That way, if you pass away prior to using your full retirement or pension benefits, your loved ones will be provided for. This is just one other way to create financial safeguarding for your family. Additionally, you are going to benefit from the peace of mind it going to give you.

When listing beneficiaries, you should be as specific as you can. This helps avoiding confusion or mistaken identity. To guarantee you are leaving behind no doubt, you must include your beneficiaries’ full names and SSN’s. You want to guarantee no foul-ups if you have a previous spouse, adopted children, step-children, or other specific circumstances. Being straightforward about your wishes can help avoid conflicts between loved ones later.

What if Your Beneficiaries Are Minor Children?

When you have minor children, there can be distinct considerations when designating beneficiaries. Minor children are unable to receive life insurance payouts or inheritances like adults would. When they are beneficiaries of a life insurance policy, the proceeds will go to their legal guardian(s). Subject to state laws, the same is usually true when minor children are beneficiaries of larger inheritances.

To circumvent this problem, you might decide to create a trust. You are then able to make the trust the beneficiary of your life insurance policy and/or will. In this way, the proceeds would be placed into the trust for your child(ren). Your trustee is then going handle those trust funds for your minor child(ren). If you go this route, make sure you decide on a trustee you believe can handle this responsibility. It would be best if you considered if this individual is reliable in managing your child’s finances.

Retirement Plan Beneficiaries

Retirement accounts usually enable the account holder to designate a beneficiary. This way, when the account holder passes away prior to using their funds, they can designate another individual to receive the proceeds.

Coming to be a beneficiary of a retirement account comes with a tax consideration. A spousal beneficiary of a qualified retirement plan such as a 401(k) or IRA might be able to pass retirement plan inheritance into their retirement account for tax benefits.

Those that are nonspousal beneficiaries, the options are more restricted. The law changed in 2019 referred to as the SECURE act. The law now necessitates non-spouses that inherit qualified retirement accounts to take allocations equivalent to the whole account value within 10 years.

The tax laws for inherited retirement accounts can get complex, particularly after the passage of the SECURE act. Tax laws are always moving forward, so those rules could change again. If you have inherited a retirement account and have concerns managing it, it’s wise to speak to a lawyer.

Annuity Beneficiaries

An annuity is basically an insurance product that provides a continual source of income throughout retirement. Annuities allow you to invest capital now and receive payments in the future. The premiums you pay out for your annuity are typically invested into mutual funds. But there can be other alternatives too. You are going to typically pay higher fees for annuities than you will for other types of retirement planning instruments.

Various annuities provide different types of payout plans. With some annuities, payments stop when the annuity’s owner passes away. With others, there’s an option for a spouse or beneficiary to receive payments following the annuity owner’s passing away. This is something to take note of when looking for an annuity. The payout plan options are going to be detailed in the primary contract you sign.

Maybe you’re looking for an annuity that is going to continually to provide for a spouse or other beneficiary following your passing. In that situation, you should speak with your financial planner or other financial professional. If the account builds in it’s worth, there can be taxes owed for annuity beneficiaries. This is an area in which an estate planning attorney’s knowledge can be useful.

Life Insurance Beneficiaries

Life insurance is a vital estate planning instrument. For parents, with life insurance policies provides peace of mind. They know that should they were to pass away; their children are going to be provided for. Life insurance also offers tax benefits over other kinds of inheritances. Proceeds from life insurance are not taxed since they are not thought of as income.

Are You Able to Alter Life Insurance Beneficiary Designations?

This questions answer could either be a yes or a no. It is all subject to the kinds of life insurance beneficiaries you have – revocable or irrevocable.

Revocable Beneficiaries as Opposed to Irrevocable Beneficiaries

Revocable Beneficiaries: A lot of life insurance policies list revocable beneficiaries. Meaning the policyholder can change the beneficiaries and terminate the policy all together if they choose to. They would be required to file paperwork with their life insurance provider. Changing beneficiary designations is a decisive thing to do when scenarios change in your life. You might need to change a beneficiary designation should you endure a divorce, if a beneficiary passes away, or when you start a trust. If you have experienced a substantial life event or an prolonged time has passed since you designated your beneficiaries, it might be time to go over your choices and your plans for your future.

Irrevocable Beneficiaries: Life insurance policies that have irrevocable beneficiaries are somewhat more complex. When you have a irrevocable beneficiaries, you are unable to change beneficiaries unless you get their permission. Your present beneficiary and any contingent beneficiaries would be required to consent to the modification. In this circumstance, irrevocable beneficiaries are practically guaranteed to be given proceeds from the life insurance policy unless they consent to be taken out. When you add irrevocable beneficiaries to your life insurance plan, you need to be sure about them. For these reasons, individuals often designate their children as their irrevocable beneficiaries.

Primary Beneficiaries as Opposed to Contingent Beneficiaries

The two leading kinds of beneficiaries are primary beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries. Primary beneficiaries are going to be the initial individual (or entity) to get the payouts from life insurance policies, pension accounts, wills, etc. If this individual is at hand to get a payout or inheritance, it is going to go to them.

Contingent beneficiaries are back-up beneficiaries. They get the proceeds only when the primary beneficiary passes away, is unavailable, or declines to get the proceeds. Individuals often designate charities as their contingent beneficiaries. In that way, when your intended beneficiary passes away before you, your preferred charity can get the proceeds.

It’s wise to list contingent beneficiaries since it can prevent family struggle following your passing. Take, for instance, a circumstance where your primary beneficiary being your spouse. If your spouse passes away before you and you have designated a trust to your contingent beneficiary, it is going to stop your children from squabbling over the proceeds. The proceeds are going to be in the trust that you designated as your contingent beneficiary. The trustee you decided on is going to then disburse the trust funds in the trust’s beneficiaries’ best interests.

You are able to list multiple contingent beneficiaries on life insurance or retirement plans. When doing this, you are required to list the percent each of the contingent beneficiaries are going to receive. Obviously, the total percentage needs to add up to 100.

How an Attorney Can Assist

Tax laws on inheritance, life insurance policies, and retirement accounts can get convoluted. The laws are also continually changing. If you are the beneficiary of an inheritance or planning for the future of your family, an estate planning attorney is able to help.

Source:

Kimberly Lekman, E. (2021, September 24). What is a beneficiary? A simple explanation. Findlaw. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.findlaw.com/estate/estate-planning-help/what-is-a-beneficiary–a-simple-explanation.html

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