The 5-Minute Beneficiary Review
Your beneficiary forms, not your will, decide who inherits your retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities. Most people fill them out once and never look again. This checklist shows you exactly what to check.
- 14 questions to run before your paperwork decides who inherits
- Why a beneficiary form quietly overrides your will
- The 10-year rule that can raise your heirs’ tax bill
- The backup-beneficiary gap that sends accounts to probate
Send me the checklist
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What you will do with it
Print it or keep it on your screen. Run the list once, mark every Yes and No, and turn the No answers into a short punch list for your attorney and tax professional.
Pull your accounts
List every retirement account, insurance policy, annuity, and HSA, including old employer plans you have not touched in years.
Work the questions
Check Yes or No for each item. A No, or an “I am not sure,” is a flag to fix, not a failure.
Take the flags to a pro
Bring your No answers to a licensed estate attorney and your tax professional. They handle the documents and the filing.
Value
David Berkowitz runs the ValueAligned Portfolio at VAP Wealth Advisors and creates free investing education under Berk on Value. This checklist is the companion to his 5-minute beneficiary review video. It is education to help you get organized, not a document you sign.
Ready when you are
Grab the checklist, run it this week, and stop leaving the most important beneficiary questions to a form you filled out years ago.
Get the free checklist →
