How to Make Beneficiary Designations

Ensuring that your life insurance policies, individual retirement accounts and pension accounts have the proper named beneficiaries is an essential part to any comprehensive estate plan. As recently as October 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the importance of beneficiary designations.

Karri Kennedy, the daughter of a former Dupont Inc. employee had sought her share of her father's retirement plan benefits. She claimed that he had said that he wanted it to go to her but had never changed his beneficiary designations despite getting a divorce from Karri's mother. Instead the court ruled that the mother was entitled to the retirement plan as the designated beneficiary.

A recent online guide from Yahoo Finance, entitled "Naming Beneficiaries of Insurance Policies and Retirement Plans" answers some questions and gives some advice for naming beneficiary of various policies and retirement accounts.