Naming beneficiaries for your retirement accounts is an critical first step in your estate planning. The beneficiary designations associated with your retirement account(s) take precedence over your will.
- To view your current beneficiary designations through Member Benefits, log into the yourMONEY account portal.
- Beneficiary change forms can also be downloaded from our retirement forms page.
It’s important to keep your account with Member Benefits up to date as well as any other accounts you may have, and to match your beneficiaries up with your estate plan. When members don’t update their beneficiaries after a major life event and then pass away, those named beneficiaries can no longer be changed. If members have no beneficiaries named on their account, the account will go to their estate. Unfortunately, that can cause many issues and delays in accessing those funds if they are needed.
Want more information about choosing beneficiaries? Read our online brochure, Choosing Beneficiaries for Your Retirement Account.