#122 - Beneficiary Designations: 9 Key Questions for Retirement Planning

Eric Blake: If something happened to me today, would my money go to the people I want in the way that I want? And that's why I think beneficiary reviews are such an important part of ongoing retirement planning. Your life today may look very different from when you opened that IRA, or you signed up for that 401(k), or you purchased that life insurance policy, or even when you completed your estate plan. So verify it. Make sure you know exactly what your beneficiary designations say.

Welcome to another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast, where we want to educate and empower women to live your retirement on your terms. I'm your host, Eric Blake. Joining me back from vacation is Wendy McConnell. Wendy, how are you?

Wendy McConnell: I'm good. How you doing?

Eric Blake: I am doing well. How was the trip?

Wendy McConnell: Oh, well, it wasn't really a vacation, but, you know, I did get some time in at the beach, a little time at the pool. So yeah, half vacation.

Eric Blake: Nice. Nice. As some people might be aware, that was my first solo episode, and I think it went okay, but it's just different when you don't have the chance to dialogue with somebody. So I'm very grateful to have you back, I'll tell you that.

Wendy McConnell: Well, I'm here, Eric. Don't you worry about it.

Eric Blake: Awesome. Well, not to bring down the room, but today we have one of those topics that nobody really wants to talk about, but I think it's critically, critically important. We're talking about beneficiary designations.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And who you actually have named to receive your IRA, your 401(k), your life insurance or annuities when you pass away. And when was the last time you actually checked those? And again, when we talk about family events, we're actually experiencing some of these different challenges in our own life with family members, and these conversations unfortunately come up. When's the last time we actually checked some of this stuff?

In our retirement planning practice, we recently sent out what we call our beneficiary review report to all of our clients, and it includes a checklist of questions that we believe are very important to consider. We generally go through this with our clients every two years, and that's how important I think it really is. Because one of the biggest mistakes that we make in retirement planning is kind of that set it and forget it. We got everything in place, but then we don't go back and review things. And your financial and retirement plan should be what I would call a living document, because life changes, things change, so making sure you're going back and reviewing these things.

So we think about our retirement income plan or tax planning. That should be reviewed annually, at least maybe a couple of times a year. Your estate plan, periodically, maybe every three to five years. Your insurance, your other protection, all these things can change, and your beneficiary designations need to be reviewed as well.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Right.

Eric Blake: Yep. People pass away, you get divorced, remarried. Children, grandchildren come into the picture. Your relationships can change, and sometimes what you want to happen with your money just simply changes.

Wendy McConnell: Right. The last thing you want to do is go through a divorce and then you forget to change the beneficiary.

Eric Blake: Absolutely. Right.

Wendy McConnell: But you know it happens, though, right?

Eric Blake: Oh, yeah. There are all the horror stories out there. And I'm going to share one, actually, and we'll get there in just a second. It didn't turn out to be, it wasn't one of those worst case scenarios, but it was close, right?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: So when you think about it, the other thing I want to point out is that a lot of people assume that if I have a will, if I have my estate plan done, which unfortunately so many people don't, but if they do, they think that everything is going to pass based on that. And that's not accurate either. That's not really how it works.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: If you have an account that passes through a valid beneficiary designation, that beneficiary designation generally controls where the money goes. It overrides the will.

Wendy McConnell: Huh.

Eric Blake: Right? And so your will doesn't simply come along afterward and change that because, well, I didn't change that beneficiary, so my will will take care of it. That's not what happens. So you could actually update your will or your trust and have everything exactly the way you want it, but if there's an old beneficiary designation on an IRA or life insurance policy or any other type of account, it may still say something different. And that's why these pieces need to be reviewed together.

Again, this is the situation I was just touching on. So we had a client, she had a life insurance policy. She'd owned it for many, many years, and her intention was for that to go to her two adult daughters, and she assumed that her daughters were already listed as beneficiaries. And I said, "Okay, well, let's do this. Let's contact the insurance company and let's verify. Let's double-check that." And it turned out that her former husband was still listed, her ex-husband was still listed as beneficiary, and even he had since passed away.

Wendy McConnell: Oh, wow. What would have happened then?

Eric Blake: So it most likely would have still gone, but it would have been a lot more hoops to jump through to get it done.

Wendy McConnell: Gotcha.

Eric Blake: Just making the process longer and more involved. And then that's also where things like contingent beneficiaries come into play as well. So I might have a primary, and then they may have had contingents, but they may not have. But that's why it's so critical to review these things and double-check. Are my wishes going to be carried out the way I want them to be? Because her life had changed, her wishes had changed, but the beneficiary form hadn't changed with her, right?

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: And I think it's especially important, it's just a reminder, that if you've lost a spouse or you've gone through a divorce, those are two times when I believe beneficiary reviews should move very high on that financial checklist, on that to-do list, right? If you've been widowed, you may have accounts that still name your spouse, and now you have to decide who's going to be next. Or after divorce, you've got that old beneficiary designation that no longer reflects your wishes. And during either of these types of transitions, you're dealing with a lot, right? There's a lot of emotions involved, and it's very easy for an IRA or an old 401(k) or life insurance policy in this case to kind of slip through the cracks and get overlooked. And you think something's real or true, and it may not be.

So today I'm going to walk through the same questions that are on that beneficiary checklist that we provide to our clients, and you can use these questions to think about your own accounts, your own family, and whether your beneficiary designations still reflect what you want to happen today. And we're going to make this checklist available at thesimplyretirementpodcast.com.

Wendy McConnell: Good.

Eric Blake: Let's get into the first question. So the first one is very obvious, but do you need to review your beneficiaries to ensure that they're up to date? So think about when's the last time I actually did review this, and when's the last time I updated? And don't rely on memory, right? We've already proved that that doesn't always work. I thought I changed it, but I never really had.

But I also touched on just a second ago the importance of primary and contingent beneficiaries. So who's first in line? But if that person has maybe passed, who's next in line? Who are the contingents? A lot of times it might be the spouse, and then the children are the contingents. Whatever it is, make sure you have, number one, make sure you have both. You want primary and contingent beneficiaries, but make sure you know who they are.

Wendy McConnell: Right. Like I have my primary is my husband.

Eric Blake: Mm-hmm.

Wendy McConnell: But if we happen to go together, I have contingents.

Eric Blake: Exactly.

Wendy McConnell: That money would go to the contingents. Right.

Eric Blake: Yes. And we won't get into the details of things like what's called per stirpes, or if you've got multiple children, how that passes if it's going to two different siblings, things like that. But those are also things you want to make part of this process, and this checklist will actually help you walk through those issues as well.

But again, especially after losing a spouse or being divorced, whatever the case might be, go account by account. Old 401(k)s, retirement plans, IRAs, life insurance, annuities, anything else that might have a beneficiary designation. Bank accounts. And I think it's also important to distinguish, with something like an IRA, you typically hear the word beneficiary designation. But you might also have something called a POD, or payable on death, on a bank account. That's important to review as part of this process as well. It's the same concept, it's just different terminology. Or a TOD if it's a brokerage account, a transfer on death. And so all those things need to be reviewed.

And here's something I think is really important. Don't just think in terms of percentages, okay? And what I mean by that is, if you think about it, just for round numbers, let's say I have a million dollar IRA, right?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: And I've got two different beneficiaries. I've got co-beneficiaries, 50/50 each.

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: Well, if you just think, well, 50% and 50%. But if I really step back and say, okay, well, 500,000 and 500,000. If 500,000 goes to little Joe and 500,000 goes to little Jane, are they both going to be able to manage that? Are they mature enough? Even if they're adult children, we know that that doesn't always mean they're mature enough to handle a lump sum of money that size.

So don't just think about percentages, because that doesn't always make it real. 50% and 50%, or 25% and 75%, that just sounds kind of, well, there's a colleague of mine that talks about how if you refer to percentages, you might as well say marshmallows, because nobody really knows what it means.

Wendy McConnell: Hmm. Okay.

Eric Blake: So think about it in dollar figures. How much money does this actually represent? And if I've got a sizable enough portfolio or investment account, is that beneficiary, again, mature enough? Are they in the position where they're going to be able to make good decisions with that? And you want to take that into consideration as you're making those decisions about who you want your beneficiaries to be, or additional steps that might need to go along with your beneficiary designations. And that's where potentially updating your estate plan and coordinating that with your beneficiary designations becomes so important.

Wendy McConnell: Like a trust, right?

Eric Blake: Could be, exactly. Could be a trust.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Or you just give everything to the responsible sibling.

Eric Blake: That's one way to do it. You might make somebody mad, but that is one way to do it. And actually, we'll share another story about the sibling scenario here in just a second that's pretty interesting.

But question two then is, are your named beneficiaries different from what your will or your trust dictates should happen, right? And we touched on that a little bit earlier, but basically you want these two documents, if we want to refer to them as documents, to be coordinated. You want your estate plan, your will, because in your will, in your trust, you're going to have designations as to who's going to receive my stuff.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Whether it's financial, it's personal property, houses, whatever it might be. In your will or your trust, you say, "Here's where this money's going to go and how it's going to get there."

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And then your beneficiary designations do something similar, but for financial accounts. So you want to make sure that those align. Depending on your circumstances, you might say, "Well, I might have a trust as a beneficiary, because then it will help pass these assets in a way that I think is appropriate." Depending on things like the age of the beneficiary, or again, financial or emotional capabilities, right? All those things come into play when you're making some of these decisions, but you want to make sure these are in alignment. A comprehensive estate plan includes your will, your power of attorneys, your trust, all that, in addition to your beneficiary designations.

Now, one of the things I find a lot is, we work with some great estate planning attorneys. We refer our clients, and when they get those documents done, well, you won't necessarily put blame on either side, but that's one of the steps that doesn't necessarily always get carried out. Because most estate planning attorneys will provide something of a checklist or to-do list once all the documents are done and signed and all in good order. There's typically going to be, "Here's what your beneficiary designations need to look like." Well, if that doesn't get carried out, and something doesn't get updated, now we might have some problems, right? And so that's where, as a financial planner, we always say, "Hey, once you get your estate plan done, whether you want me to reach out to your estate planning attorney, or you just want to make sure they forward those documents to us, we can then help facilitate those changes if it's necessary to get those beneficiaries updated so that they do align with your estate plan."

Hi, everyone, it's Eric. Hope you're enjoying today's episode. I want to take just a quick moment to share a resource I think you'll find really valuable. If you've ever asked yourself, "How much is my Social Security reduced if I file early?" Or, "Am I eligible for benefits as a spouse, surviving spouse, or even after divorce?" You're not alone. That's why we created our ultimate guide to women's Social Security success. It includes six of our most popular Social Security guides and checklists for women. Inside, you'll find a 2026 quick reference guide with key Social Security amounts and limits to be aware of, along with five additional guides and checklists to help you make more informed decisions about eligibility and filing strategies. You can download it for free at womenssocialsecurityguide.com. Keep it handy wherever you may be in the decision-making process. Now, back to the episode.

The next question is, if you are charitably inclined, do you need to review the investments you intend to leave to charities?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: Not a lot of people might think about this, but here's an example. A lot of our clients, with many clients that are women, they often want to leave some money to charity in some way, form, or fashion, depending on what's most important to them. But the way you think about this is saying, okay, let's say I've got an IRA and I've got a brokerage account or an after-tax account, right? Well, if we're thinking about what's best, and a Roth, we'll throw a Roth into the mix as well. But let's say that I want to leave some part of my accounts to a charity.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Well, you might think, okay, maybe I'm going to do at least 50% to a charity and 50% to other family members. Well, the way I would look at it, we think about a charitable organization. If they inherit assets or receive assets, they don't pay taxes, right? So I might think about saying, well, I might leave my IRA, my pre-tax dollars, to the charity because they don't pay taxes anyway.

Wendy McConnell: Oh.

Eric Blake: And leave my Roth dollars or my after-tax dollars that get what's called a step-up in basis to the humans, to the people.

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: Right? And so if you think about wanting to leave money to a charity, what is the optimal way to do that? And often it is through your beneficiary designations, but not as simply as doing a 50/50 mix or something like that for all accounts. Think strategically about which type of accounts I can leave to organizations or to individuals.

Wendy McConnell: That's smart, Eric.

Eric Blake: You like that?

Wendy McConnell: That's using your noggin.

Eric Blake: That's right. So then next is, do you need to review the planned proportions of qualified and non-qualified accounts being left to your heirs? And again, this kind of ties in to what I just said, but it also can get into understanding that for many of our clients who have gone through a divorce or have been widowed, and now their kids are their beneficiaries, their kids have different financial circumstances as well, right?

So you might also think about those same concepts or strategies of saying, should I leave each account 50/50 to each child? Let's say there's two children. Do I leave it 50/50, or do I think about their specific tax situation as well? Maybe one of them is a higher earner and in a higher tax bracket. Maybe one of them is in a lower tax bracket. Should I think about splitting the type of account? Should I be giving pre-tax dollars to the child that's in the lower tax bracket because they're going to pay less taxes on that money as compared to the higher earner? And you might even say, "Based on the way the math works, I could leave 60% of my IRA, of these dollars here, and 40% of these dollars over here, and they ultimately receive the same amount after taxes."

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: And so think about that. Again, be strategic about how you want to leave your money and make sure that your wishes are being carried out. And one of the ways you can look at it is thinking about the proportions of my qualified or pre-tax dollars versus non-qualified or after-tax dollars. How do I want to leave those so that ultimately less money is going to Uncle Sam?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: The next one is where the client example I'm going to share comes in. This is what is very interesting in how this all played out. But the next question is, do you have your estate listed as a beneficiary? So you could actually have the estate of, as a beneficiary designation, or if you have no beneficiary designation, that's kind of the same thing, right? So the money goes into your estate and then has to get distributed from there. So if you don't have a beneficiary, you go to the estate plan, the will, that sort of thing. If you have one, but it still goes into the estate, then the will would have to dictate how the money gets dispersed from there. Or if you don't have a will, you're what's called intestate, and the same thing happens. It's just that the state you live in determines how everything's going to get dispersed, which is many times not what you want, right?

Wendy McConnell: No.

Eric Blake: So do I have an estate listed as a beneficiary, or do I possibly not even have beneficiary designations? And so you want to say, okay, was that intentional, number one. And then we say, well, what happens if there is no valid beneficiary provided, right?

And one of the scenarios we faced was that there were basically four siblings, right? One sibling passed away. The retirement account didn't have a beneficiary designation at all, right? So the remaining siblings inherited the funds.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: But ultimately, that determined how they received the funds. In this case, it basically meant fully dispersing the entire account in a single year. They basically split the account in thirds, but in this case it was over $600,000, so that's now $200,000 in taxable income in the current year on top of whatever else they may be earning if they're still working, their salaries, whatever else there might be. So you're basically just stacking this additional income on top of that. So it resulted in a full distribution of the account to each of the other siblings at their current tax rates.

Wendy McConnell: Hmm. Yeah, that could be a whammy for you.

Eric Blake: Now, I don't know what the relationship was among the siblings, but what I would guess is that with the sibling that passed away, her objective was not to leave more, to give more to Uncle Sam than she needed to.

Wendy McConnell: Let's hope, right?

Eric Blake: And the circumstance in this case, not having beneficiary designations, resulted in a significantly higher tax bill to the other three siblings than was necessary had she actually had beneficiary designations and provided them with more options. And we'll talk about what that might look like here in just a bit.

Wendy McConnell: Now, in another interesting situation, well, I'm going off on a tangent here, but if a sibling passes away, in one case I know that the portion that went to the sibling that passed away went to the children of that sibling, and that was distributed among them equally.

Eric Blake: That's all right. So it depends. And in my example, there were no children, right? So it was basically, who's the next living relative?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: And so it depends on what the circumstances are. So yes, in that case, it would typically flow down through the children because they're next in line, right? So in that situation, that's probably what happened. But again, the difference being, could there have been a different distribution strategy versus what we saw in this scenario? Did it all have to be dispersed because there was no beneficiary designation, so it had to go into the estate and it had to be fully dispersed in a single year? As compared to, let's assume it's IRA money or retirement account money, at a minimum, worst case, being able to follow the 10-year rule that comes as a result of the SECURE Act. Distributing that money over 10 years rather than in a single year can make a huge difference when we're talking about what the actual tax implications are.

Wendy McConnell: Yes.

Eric Blake: Okay. The next question is, do any of your accounts have a trust listed as beneficiary? So why was the trust named? You want to understand that, number one. Is that reason still valid? A trust may not provide the control or protection that you think it might. And a great example of this is somebody saying, well, I did my estate plan when my kids were younger, right? When they were five. A lot of times that's one of the triggers for getting my will done, because I just had a child. Or I've now got young children, so I want to get my will done, make sure I've got a custodian chosen, or who's going to take care of my children. All those things are always triggers for getting my will done.

Well, an obvious case is, if a child can't receive inherited assets, which is actually our next question, but if they can't receive assets, I might create a trust to receive those assets on their behalf. Right? Now they might be 35, but I still never really updated my will and my estate plan to address that. That's where you might still have a trust designated where it might not still be appropriate. So that's when you think about, is the trust itself part of a larger estate plan?

You also want to think about the challenges that come up if you have a trust on an IRA account or retirement account, what the implications are there, and does that trust provide for the disbursement of those dollars in a way that minimizes taxes as well? So for example, if there are no provisions for dispersing those assets, and all the IRA money just simply goes into the trust and sits there, it's all going to get taxed at the trust tax rates. It might still go to the people you want it to, but if you've looked at the tax rates for a trust as compared to individuals, it's a significant difference, right?

So back to our example, we talked about having a million-dollar IRA. If I have a million-dollar IRA going into a trust and it immediately gets taxed, that's a million dollars in income taxed at the very highest tax rate.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: That's a problem. That means we've got more going to Uncle Sam than most likely we wanted. And that's the other thing, again, back to the point of saying you don't always know what people's intentions are, but it's very rarely to give as much as I can to Uncle Sam.

Wendy McConnell: This is why we plan, plan, plan.

Eric Blake: Exactly. So think about why you have the trust. When's the last time the trust has been updated? And if that is the case, if it still makes sense to have the trust as the beneficiary of a retirement account, are all the important parties still in a position to carry out their roles? Who's the trustee? Who's the successor trustee? Who are the beneficiaries of the trust? Who are the successors? For all those different roles, you need to make sure that all those people can still fill their roles if that's still a valid strategy for your particular case.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Right? But that's also where you might think, okay, I need to coordinate with my financial advisor and my estate planning attorney, right? That's where that coordination, that communication becomes really important as well, in making sure that if I did make some adjustments to my trust, or I did make some adjustments to my beneficiary, are they speaking to each other? Are they coordinated? And that often happens by the financial advisor working with the estate planning attorney to make sure all the documents are getting updated in an appropriate amount of time, and making sure that it still follows what the wishes are of the client.

Next, we have, do any of your accounts or assets have a minor listed as the beneficiary? Again, that's basically taking that previous concern one step further of saying, okay, if a minor is listed as a beneficiary, if they're not of age, they can't actually inherit assets. So if I had a five-year-old receiving a million dollar IRA, they can't inherit that because they're underage, right?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: So you think about, what if that beneficiary is still a minor when you pass away?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Again, unfortunately, none of us know when that's going to come, but a minor generally can't simply take control of inherited assets. So naming a child directly may create some legal and administrative challenges that you really didn't intend, because someone may need to actually manage the assets on the child's behalf. But if I simply have listed the child and I haven't taken any other steps, the individual that gets chosen as the trustee may not necessarily be the person you would have chosen yourself. Because if there are no documents to guide that decision, the state makes that decision for you.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. You don't want to take these kind of chances.

Eric Blake: Not at all.

Wendy McConnell: No.

Eric Blake: And that's why it's so important, again, to review your beneficiary designations and make sure you've got the right pieces in place. Because you want to think about, if I want to have as much control in the, well, we have to call this having control in the grave, right? If I want to have as much control as I can, or, put a different way, make sure that the right things are happening when I'm gone, you want to think about, well, who should that person be? Who should be the trustee for that minor child? And make that decision now rather than not making any decision at all and having the state make that decision for you. When should the child eventually have control? When would you want them to actually receive the dollars?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: And then you start looking at something called a trust, or what are called UTMAs or UGMAs, Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, those types of things. Those may be possibilities depending on the situation.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: But that's really where you start thinking about, if I chose a minor child, is it appropriate, and do I need to take additional steps to make sure that those assets are received and benefit that child in the way that I originally intended?

The next question is, are you concerned about your heirs being subject to unfavorable RMD rules from an inherited IRA? We've done a couple of episodes on this exact topic of what happens when I inherit an IRA where I'm a spouse or I'm a non-spouse. What are the rules that I must follow, or that I need to be aware of, if I'm inheriting a retirement account?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: So for many of our clients, they've been widowed, they've been divorced, and now they have made the beneficiary designation changes that are needed, but in many cases it's going to be their adult children. Well, the SECURE Act, which was voted into law a few years ago, has something called the 10-year rule, which simply means that if I'm a non-spouse inheriting an IRA, I may be subject to the 10-year rule, which means I might have to fully disperse that IRA account within 10 years.

So back to our example. And this is where, again, some of these decisions become really important and really impactful. But going back to our example just a bit ago of the four siblings, if we think about the three siblings inheriting that retirement account, under the SECURE Act, if there's less than a 10-year age difference, which of course there often is with siblings, right? In many cases, the siblings are two, three, four years difference in age. Well, they may have the option of stretching those distributions out over their lifetime.

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: So if I'm receiving over $200,000 in inherited retirement account money, the difference between having to fully distribute it and pay taxes in year one versus being able to take that same $200,000 and spread it out over the next 10, 20, 30 years, whatever it might be, makes a huge difference from a tax perspective.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And that's again where we want to make sure we understand what the rules are when others are going to be inheriting my retirement accounts, right? Because typically we're thinking traditional IRA distributions are going to be taxable, and the timing of those withdrawals can make a huge difference in terms of taxes owed, right? And again, as I talked about, regardless of what the relationships are among siblings, among family members, whoever it might be, nobody says, "I wake up this morning and I want to pay more to Uncle Sam at some point down the road. I want all my money to go to the government."

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: As I said earlier, there have been a couple of episodes we've done on these. I'll refer everyone to episode 52, "I Inherited an IRA. Now What? Five Steps to Avoid Costly Mistakes," and a more recent episode we did specifically for spouses, "Inherited IRA Options Every Widow Should Understand." That'll help give you a better understanding of how these tax laws really work and what you can do to work them in your favor as best as possible.

Okay. The last question we're going to talk about is, are you concerned about estate tax liability? And this impacts way fewer people now than it used to. If you just think about the federal estate tax exemption, it's $15 million for an individual, and then if it's a married couple, times two, so $30 million here in 2026. So if my estate is valued at less than that, I may not be concerned, at least today, about estate tax liability. But there are those out there who have that concern. So if that is something I need to be thinking about, that's also where, again, you make sure that you're coordinating your estate plan with your beneficiary designations.

The other thing that a lot of people don't think about is that, depending on what state you're in, your state may have different estate tax rules that you have to follow versus simply looking at it at the federal level. And so that's again where all this coordinating with your estate planning attorney, your financial advisor, your tax professional, that's really where that communication becomes really important if you think you might be subject to estate tax liability at some point, whether it's in the near term or at some point down the road.

And that's just where we think about this big question of, could taxes meaningfully change what my beneficiaries ultimately receive? So as you can probably tell, reviewing your beneficiaries isn't simply about looking at a list of names and checking a box. It's really about asking a much bigger question. If something happened to me today, would my money go to the people I want in the way that I want? And that's why I think beneficiary reviews are such an important part of ongoing retirement planning. Your life today may look very different from when you opened that IRA, or you signed up for that 401(k), or you purchased that life insurance policy, or even when you completed your estate plan.

Especially if you've lost a spouse or you've gone through a divorce, again, you don't want to rely on what you remember, right? Because all of our memories, at some point they start to, we start losing a little bit somewhere along the line, right?

Wendy McConnell: How dare you.

Eric Blake: Of course, you. Yeah. So verify it. Make sure you know exactly what your beneficiary designations say, and you don't have to remember all the nine questions we just went through today. We're going to make this beneficiary checklist that we discussed available as a free resource, again, at thesimplyretirementpodcast.com. But the action item for this episode is, download that document, pull out your beneficiary information, and work through those questions one by one. And most importantly, if you find something that you don't understand, that gives you a very specific question to take to your financial advisor, to your estate planning attorney, your tax professional, or your insurance company, because you want to make sure your beneficiary designations reflect your life today, not the life you originally had when you filled out that form.

Wendy McConnell: Got it.

Eric Blake: That is it for today's episode. Thank you so much, Wendy, as always, for joining me and talking through this very important topic. Be sure to follow the podcast so you're notified when new episodes are released. And until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road. It's the start of a new journey.