Your beneficiary designation information with your retirement plan administrator may control the distribution of those assets regardless of what other legal documents exist or your intent may be. A recent Supreme Court ruling illustrated the importance of reviewing and updating your "Beneficiary Designation Form.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the “Beneficiary Designation Form” controlled who would receive the proceeds upon death, despite other legal or estate planning documents.(1)
There are numerous court cases and State Supreme Court cases that address the contractual nature of the payment of retirement benefits and they all seem to send the same message, the Beneficiary Designation Form and not other documents like trusts, wills, divorce decrees, may determine who gets the assets from a retirement account. It is critical that you update your beneficiary designation form whenever you have a life change that impacts who you want to receive your retirement benefits. Outdated, incomplete or inaccurate beneficiary designation forms can cause a lifetime of savings to be distributed to someone other than who you really want to receive the distribution.
First and foremost, take the time to review all of your retirement account beneficiary forms from 401ks, 403bs, pension plans, IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEPs etc. whenever you have a life change. • Marriage • Divorce • Birth of a Child • Death of an Existing Beneficiary • Review of Estate Plan • Creation or Change to a Will • Incapacity of a Beneficiary mentally or physically • Change in Laws that may impact Beneficiary Designations
At Heartland, you can review and change your beneficiary designation at any time. To verify your current beneficiary designation, call a Heartland representative at 1-800-432-7856. We are available from 8 a.m. CST to 7 p.m. CST Monday through Friday. To update or change your beneficiary designation complete an IRA Account Maintenance Form available on our website or by calling a Heartland representative.
(1) Kennedy v. Plan Administrators for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan, 555 U.S. (2009).
Neither Heartland Funds nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice. These are estimates and should not be used for year-end tax preparation. For guidance on a specific situation, investors should consult their tax advisor or legal counsel.