S/O HR-related questions...

KimWard

I'm going to start a 401K soon. I asked the HR lady about beneficiary designation b/c I want to name my parents as beneficiaries if something should happen to both myself and DH. She said to write a separate letter naming my parents as beneficiaries if something should happen to both of us, include their SS#s, sign it, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to word this? Who should I even address it to? I tried to google "sample beneficiary designation letter" but a bunch of forms and ex. of what I'm not looking for come up. I've never had to do this before, so I am clueless.TIA for any advice- sorry this is a partial P&R, but I'm leaving work in 10 min.

morganphd

I'm surprised your 401K doesn't have a secondary beneficiary on it. I have a 403B (nonprofit) and my mom is listed as a secondary beneficiary. She's also there on my life insurance as well.

marburs

that is weird- my 401k has two lines as well. FI and my brother. I would just word it really simply- state what you want. seperate lines for each of your parents, and boom your done.

KimWard

Eff, I just reported Sara's post by accident. My computer's being slow, and I thought I hit post but I must've hit report. Shiiit, please ignore that report Molly (that is, if you're the one who gets it...) Anyway, back to the situation....I can name a beneficiary in addition to DH, but would need him to sign off on it and get it notarized. Not that that is a problem, but my impression is that this would mean both DH and my parents are equally entitled to whatever if I die, which is not what I want. The letter would be naming my parents as beneficiary only if something happened to both DH and I. Hope that makes sense.

morganphd

That is very strange Kim. On every piece of monetary investment that I have, there are two sets of beneficiaries. Writing a letter to place your parents in charge is something happens to you and your DH sounds an awful lot like a will.