Beneficiary designation checklist: which accounts to check, and when

A short note before you start

This guide is general information for the United States, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Which accounts allow a beneficiary form, and how state law treats them, varies by institution and state. Confirm details for your own accounts directly with the institution.

Which accounts pass by beneficiary designation, not by your will

Most people assume their will decides who gets everything they own. In practice, a large share of most estates passes outside the will, through a beneficiary form filed with a bank, insurer, or plan administrator. These are sometimes called "non-probate" assets.

Accounts that typically pass by beneficiary designation include:

• Employer retirement plans: 401(k), 403(b), pension and profit-sharing plans
• Individual retirement accounts: traditional and Roth IRAs
• Life insurance policies and annuities
• Payable-on-death (POD) bank accounts and certificates of deposit
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) brokerage and investment accounts
• Payable-on-death savings bonds held in a TreasuryDirect account⁹
• Real estate, in states that allow a transfer-on-death deed. The Uniform Law Commission has drafted a model Real Property Transfer on Death Act that a number of states have adopted, but not all states offer this option¹¹. Search "[your state] transfer on death deed" to find out if yours does.

Assets with no named beneficiary, and property titled only in the deceased person's name, generally go through the will and probate instead. See the executor checklist and settling an estate for that process.

Why a beneficiary designation overrides your will

A beneficiary form is a direct instruction to the institution holding the account, separate from the will. Fidelity puts it plainly: "Your beneficiary designations override instructions in a will, so it's important to keep them up to date"¹. The bank, insurer or plan administrator pays out according to whatever form is on file, plus a death certificate and a claim, without waiting for probate.

This holds even if the will was signed more recently and says something different. A will generally only controls the probate estate: property with no transfer mechanism attached. An old form naming an ex-spouse, an estranged sibling, or someone who died years ago usually still wins.

When to review your beneficiaries

After a marriage

Add a new spouse where you want them included, and decide whether to keep, add, or remove other beneficiaries. On an employer retirement plan, federal law usually makes a spouse the automatic primary beneficiary once you marry, regardless of who was named before⁴.

After a divorce

This is the review that gets missed most often, and the one with the highest stakes. In Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, a man died still listing his ex-wife as the beneficiary of his employer life insurance and pension plan. His home state had a law that automatically canceled an ex-spouse's beneficiary status upon divorce, but the Supreme Court held that federal law for employer plans overrides that kind of state law, so the ex-wife received the benefits instead of his children⁶. Some states have similar laws for other accounts, such as life insurance bought outside an employer plan or a bank POD account, but these vary by state and do not reach every account. Do not rely on a divorce decree, or an assumption about state law, to fix a beneficiary form. Contact every institution directly and update the form yourself.

After a birth or adoption

Add a new child as a primary or contingent beneficiary if you want them included. Since a minor generally cannot receive proceeds directly, decide now how their share would be managed; see "Naming a minor as a beneficiary" below.

After a death in the family

If a named or contingent beneficiary dies before you do, update the form. An outdated one can leave a share going to a deceased person's estate instead of the people you actually want to provide for.

Every year, regardless

Even with no major life event, Vanguard recommends reviewing beneficiary designations annually, "especially after major life events such as marriage, divorce, births, or deaths in the family"². Jobs change, accounts get consolidated, and it is easy to forget who is listed on an account opened a decade ago.

How to check the beneficiary on each type of account

Primary and contingent beneficiaries

A primary beneficiary is first in line to receive the account. Vanguard describes a contingent, or secondary, beneficiary as the backup: contingent beneficiaries "inherit your assets only if all primary beneficiaries are deceased, can't be located, or refuse their inheritance"².

Skipping the contingent line is one of the most common gaps in a beneficiary form. If the primary beneficiary has already died and no contingent is listed, many institutions default to paying the account to the owner's estate, pulling the asset back into probate, the exact outcome a beneficiary designation usually exists to avoid.

Naming a minor as a beneficiary

A minor generally cannot take direct control of insurance proceeds or a retirement account. Listing a child directly, with no other arrangement, typically means a court process is needed before the funds can be released and managed for the child⁶.

The more common workaround is a custodian named under a state's version of the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA), a model law "adopted by most states" that lets a named custodian "manage the property for the minor's benefit until the minor reaches a certain age," at which point the child gets full control⁶. Many insurers and custodians accept a UTMA custodian directly on the beneficiary form, in a format such as "[Name] as custodian for [child's name] under the [state] UTMA." The age it ends is set by the state, so ask what applies where you live.

For a larger inheritance, or a family that wants more control over timing, a trust set up in a will or during your lifetime is more flexible than a UTMA custodianship, and worth discussing with an estate planning attorney.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the will controls the account. It usually does not; the beneficiary form on file wins.
• Naming a minor directly, with no custodian or trust arranged, which can delay payout until a court gets involved.
• Leaving the contingent beneficiary line blank, or unchanged after that person has died.
• Assuming a divorce decree, or a state law, automatically updated an old form. For an employer plan it generally does not⁶, and rules for other accounts vary by state.
• Naming "my estate" as beneficiary, which routes the asset back through probate.
• Never telling anyone the accounts exist, so a beneficiary form goes unclaimed.

When to get professional help

Most people can review and update beneficiaries themselves, directly with each institution. Bring in an estate planning attorney if you want to leave money to a minor or a beneficiary with special needs through a trust rather than a simple custodian, if a blended family makes "who gets what" contested, or if a dispute has already started. A financial advisor or CPA can help weigh an individual versus a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account.

Beneficiary review checklist

• List every account that could have a beneficiary: retirement, life insurance, annuities, bank, brokerage, savings bonds, and any transfer-on-death real estate deed

• Log in to, or call, each institution to confirm who is currently listed as primary and contingent beneficiary

• Update every account after a marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, or the death of a named beneficiary

• Add or confirm a contingent beneficiary on every account, not just a primary one

• Never leave a minor as a direct beneficiary; use a UTMA custodian designation or set up a trust

• For an employer retirement plan, get your spouse's written, notarized consent before naming anyone else primary

• After a divorce, update every account yourself; do not assume the decree or state law already changed it

• Confirm a new form did not accidentally overwrite beneficiaries you meant to keep elsewhere

• Write down what is named where, and where forms are kept, in one place your family can find, such as a family guide

• Recheck the full list once a year