Life insurance is an important asset (in the case of whole life policies) that should not overlooked by families. It can also be a powerful financial and estate planning tool, but its benefits can be reduced or even eliminated if you designate the wrong beneficiary or fail to change beneficiaries when your life circumstances change.  Common life insurance beneficiary pitfalls to avoid include:

(1) Naming your estate as beneficiary

Doing so can subject life insurance proceeds to unnecessary state inheritance taxes (in many states), expose the proceeds to your estate’s creditors and ensure that the proceeds will go through probate, which may delay payment to your loved ones.

(2) Naming minor children as beneficiaries

Insurance companies won’t pay life insurance proceeds directly to minors, which means a court-appointed guardian (who, if you’re divorced, could be your former spouse) will manage the funds until your minor-age children reach the age of majority. A better approach is to designate a trust as beneficiary. This allows you to determine who will manage the funds and how they’ll be distributed to your children.

(3) Naming your former spouse as beneficiary

It’s unlikely that you’d do this intentionally. But if you get divorced and neglect to designate a new beneficiary, this could be the result (even if you’ve updated your will or trust).

Avoiding Life Insurance Beneficiary Pitfalls

For many people, an effective strategy is to establish an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) to purchase and own a life insurance policy and to designate the ILIT as the policy’s beneficiary.

If you’re unsure of whom to name as beneficiary of your life insurance policy or retirement plan or would like to learn about more ways to avoid life insurance beneficiary pitfalls and provide for your minor children, please contact us.

(This is Blog Post #705)