Your 401(k) doesn’t just disappear when you die. Here’s how it’s transferred, who gets it, the tax impact, and why beneficiary updates matter more than you think.

One of the most important aspects of estate planning is choosing who you’d like to be your beneficiaries. A beneficiary is someone who is named to receive a financial gift from an estate or a specific ...

You cannot name a legal minor as a beneficiary. This applies to almost all legal documents, most notably wills and life insurance policies. The significant exception to this rule is trusts. You can ...

While the execution of wills requires formalities like witnesses and a notary, the reality is that most property passes to heirs through other, less formal means. Many bank and investments accounts, ...

Most working Americans use an Investment Retirement Account (IRA) as their main vehicle for retirement planning. If your client also chooses an IRA to leave assets to their family, naming a trust as ...

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See ...

DALLAS — A will is one of those things that a lot of us put off as long as possible. All that paperwork, those details, the intimidating legalese, and thinking about dying –they’re all good reasons to ...

Do yourself a favor: Check the heirs named on your IRA or 401(k) retirement plans. Then check your parents’ accounts. A lot is riding on these designations, and it’s easy for life to outrun planning ...

In Transamerica Life Ins. Co. v. Quarm, Thomas Quarm obtained a life insurance policy and designated his mother as his beneficiary and his brother, Nicholas, as the alternate beneficiary. No. EP-16-CV ...

Note: This article is part of Morningstar's 2018 Guide to IRAs special report. A version of this article appeared Oct. 10, 2014. In a previous article, I waded into the treacherous terrain of ...