Does a will change named beneficiaries for life insurance policies, pensions, and similar accounts?
No. No matter whom you’ve chosen as beneficiaries in your Will, the person or persons you have properly designated as the beneficiary(ies) of your life insurance policy, a payable-on-death bank account, an IRA, or 401(k) or other retirement plan — typically by filing the beneficiary designation with the company or plan sponsor — governs.
No. Each life insurance policy has a named beneficiary or beneficiaries. Bank accounts might have a pay-on-death instruction, and a pension plan like an IRA or a 401(k) usually has a designated beneficiary. The beneficiaries named in these policies and accounts have a legal right to the money when you die. Nothing you say in your Will changes that. So, for example, if you named your sister as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy before you had children, didnt change that beneficiary designation with the insurance company after the children were born, but say in your Will that you want the proceeds of your life insurance policy to be divided equally among your three children, your sister will get all the proceeds if you die and your children will get nothing. If you set up a savings account at the bank as a pay-on-death account to be paid to your nephew, but say in your Will that you want your money, most of which is in that savings account, to be divided equally between your c
