The designated beneficiary will receive the funds regardless of the spouse's wishes unless the account holder changes the beneficiary designation before their death. However, certain circumstances, such as community property laws in some states, might affect how assets are distributed.
In fact, beneficiary designations take precedence over wills and trusts in most cases, making them virtually probate-proof. Having beneficiaries on your account circumvents the probate process and helps ensure that assets can be transferred to heirs without delay.
While some marital assets pass by default to the surviving spouse, some assets pass to the surviving spouse by way of beneficiary designations. There are two types of designations: payable-on-death (POD) designations and transfer-on-death (TOD) designations.
Yes, you can name anyone, including persons that you are unrelated to, as a beneficiary of your retirement accounts. However, you should note that some retirement accounts will require a spouse's consent if you name someone other than your spouse. Be sure to check the requirements if you are married or become married.
If you are married, by law, your spouse must be named as the beneficiary. If you enter someone else, marital laws will take precedent and your spouse will receive the asset anyway. The only way around this is to get your spouse to sign a waiver.
If you do not name a beneficiary, The Standard will pay the life benefit according to the “policy order.” This means your surviving spouse will be paid the benefit as the first person listed in the order.
In many cases, the spouse can inherit your house even if their name was not on the deed. This is because of how the probate process works. When someone dies intestate, their surviving spouse is the first one who gets a chance to file a petition with the court that would initiate administration of the estate.
If you own the policy and you're not financially supporting your ex-spouse after the divorce, you can likely remove them as your policy's beneficiary. If you're on the hook for alimony or child support, a judge may require you to keep your ex-spouse as a beneficiary so support continues if you were to die.
Executors are bound to the terms of the will, which means they are not permitted to change beneficiaries. The beneficiaries who were named by the decedent will remain beneficiaries so long as the portions of the will in which they appear are not invalidated through a successful will contest.
When you get married, nothing is automatically changed in your will. That means whatever was in your will before you got married is not changed when you are legally married – unless you update your will.
Can a Beneficiary Designation Be Contested? Any beneficiary designation can be contested, but the person contesting has to have standing and there has to be a valid reason for the dispute.
Even if the couple had a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, a spouse may still in rare cases be able to contest the will and receive an elective share, though this can be a difficult and costly legal process. Divorce almost always terminates a spouse's right of election, though spousal abandonment does not.
While a spouse doesn't override a designated beneficiary on a bank account, they may be entitled to a portion of the assets in a payable-on-death bank account if those assets are community property.
If one of multiple beneficiaries dies
If you named more than one primary beneficiary and one of them dies, the remaining beneficiaries would be entitled to the death benefit. Typically, they'd each receive the same amount of money, but you can request a different type of distribution if you'd like.
Only about a third of all states have laws specifying that assets owned by the deceased are automatically inherited by the surviving spouse. In the remaining states, the surviving spouse may inherit between one-third and one-half of the assets, with the remainder divided among surviving children, if applicable.
Weeks Before Death
As the end of life nears, extreme fatigue, confusion, and social withdrawal become more pronounced. Patients may engage in life review and focus on funeral planning, revealing their emotional state.
If your spouse built up entitlement to the State Second Pension between 2002 and 2016, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount; PLUS. If your spouse built up entitlement to Graduated Retirement Benefit between 1961 and 1975, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount.
If he did not have a will, state statutes, known as intestacy laws, would provide who has priority to inherit the assets. In our example, if the husband had a will then the house would pass to whomever is to receive his assets pursuant to that will. That may very well be his wife, even if her name is not on the title.
For a community property in California, it depends upon when and how their spouse acquired the property. The law asserts that all property purchased during the marriage, with income that was earned during the marriage, is community property.
For a vast majority of owners like you, the process of selling a home after a spouse, partner or joint owner has died isn't too complicated as long as you have the death certificate and you owned the property in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship.
A life insurance beneficiary designation usually overrides a current spouse or a will. Spouses in community property states must split the death benefit with the named beneficiary. Review (and update) your beneficiaries any time your situation changes.
The SSA cannot pay benefits for the month of a recipient's death. That means if the person died in July, the check or direct deposit received in August (which is payment for July) must be returned.
Durable Powers of Attorney
The surviving spouse needs to take care that another trusted person replaces the decedent as their power of attorney. The surviving spouse also must decide if the power of attorney may be used at any time, or only when he or she becomes incapacitated.