A beneficiary designation is the form you file with a retirement account, insurance policy, annuity, or brokerage account naming who receives it when you die, and it generally overrides your will.
IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, and life insurance pass directly to the people named on the form. Brokerage and bank accounts can do the same through transfer-on-death or payable-on-death registration. Because these skip the will, an old form naming an ex-spouse or a parent who has died can send money where you no longer intend, and no one can change it after your death.
Name both primary and backup (contingent) beneficiaries. For inherited IRAs, most non-spouse heirs must empty the account within 10 years; a spouse, a minor child, a disabled or chronically ill heir, or someone not more than 10 years younger than you has more flexible options.
Naming your estate, or leaving the form blank, usually sends the account through probate and can force faster, taxable withdrawals.
How to check
Ask each custodian and your employer's plan which beneficiaries they have on file, and compare them with your will and trust after any marriage, divorce, birth, or death.
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