Beneficiary designations are easy to overlook—and mistakes may not be discovered until it is too late to correct them. Matthew Lundy Law, PL provides Beneficiary Auditing and Beneficiary Designation Review services for individuals, family law attorneys, estate planning attorneys, and other professionals who want to make sure beneficiary designations accurately reflect a client’s intentions and legal obligations.
Our firm’s extensive experience with retirement plans, QDROs, ERISA, and other employee benefits allows us to identify beneficiary issues that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Why Review Beneficiary Designations?
Major life events can dramatically change who an individual intends to receive retirement or other benefits. These events may include:
- Divorce or remarriage
- Marriage
- Birth or adoption of children
- Death of a beneficiary
- Retirement
- Changes to an estate plan
- Creation or amendment of a trust
- Changes in employment or retirement plans
A divorce judgment, marital settlement agreement, will, or trust does not necessarily cause a retirement plan or other benefit provider to change the beneficiary designation maintained in its records. For certain ERISA-governed plans, this distinction can be especially important. A former spouse may have waived an interest in retirement benefits during a divorce, yet the plan may still be required to administer benefits according to the beneficiary designation and governing plan documents if the designation was never properly changed.