- 1). Determine who your beneficiary should be. In community property states, your spouse is required by law to be your IRA account beneficiary, unless he signs an authorization designating otherwise. Based on how you want your money to be distributed after your death, there are a number of strategies that you should review with your tax and financial advisers in naming your beneficiary. For example, spouses can roll over inherited IRAs and treat them as their own, whereas other beneficiaries, such as children or family trusts, must take immediate distributions based on set schedules. This might alter how you construct your beneficiary designations.
- 2). Assemble relevant personal information about your beneficiaries. Firms will need the names and addresses of your beneficiaries, along with their dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
- 3). Contact your broker or financial institution and ask for the correct beneficiary designation paperwork. Follow the instructions for designating both your primary and contingent beneficiaries. As the names suggest, your primary beneficiaries are first in line to receive the proceeds of your account upon your death, but if they predecease you, your contingent beneficiaries replace them as the primary beneficiaries.
- 4). Understand that you can change your beneficiaries at any time. Except for your spouse, who may need to give written consent to be removed as a beneficiary, you are free to change your beneficiaries whenever you like.
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