The Truth About Personal Finance (Collection)

Truth 12. Customizing beneficiary designation forms

The beneficiary designation form on your IRA or 401(k) represents one of the most important documents you will ever have. It is the form where you list who is to get the benefits of your retirement account after your death. All the tremendous benefits for future tax-deferred or tax-free compound growth can be drastically reduced or even lost if you don’t fill in the form properly or keep it up to date.

The forms, as provided by the administrator of your retirement account, are pretty basic, simple forms, and therein lies part of the problem. Although the funds in your retirement account may be hundreds of thousands of dollars and represent an asset that requires somewhat complicated ...