If your loved one failed to name a beneficiary on their retirement plan, must the assets revert to the estate? Short answer, not always.

Unfortunately, this mistake still happens. A loved one or spouse passes and it comes to light that they forget to name their husband/wife as the primary beneficiary or their children as contingent beneficiaries on their 401k plan or their IRA. This is a mistake you should never make. Always name your beneficiaries on retirement plans, bank accounts, investment accounts, etc.

But, what if your loved one has already passed and beneficiaries were not designated. You may still have some options:

• Check the “default beneficiary” provisions of your retirement plan or your IRA documents - the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 requires qualified employer plans to automatically name a surviving spouse as the beneficiary after one (1) year of marriage;

• Consider a spousal rollover if the “estate” was the named beneficiary or the default provision under the plan documents names the “estate” - in such cases, if the surviving spouse is the sole or residuary beneficiary of the estate, the IRS will allow the surviving spouse to rollover the account to their own IRA; and/or

• Consider a disclaimer if two spouses die within a relatively short period of time for IRA assets - that way a contingent (younger) beneficiary can utilize their longer life expectancy payout period for the IRA assets.

If you have questions about the effects of a missing beneficiary designation, please feel free to contact Intelligent Investing at www.mynmfp.com/new-clients for a no-obligation consultation.

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David L. Hogans, Esq. is an author and the founder of Intelligent Investing, Inc., a registered investment advisor firm located in Albuquerque, NM.  He earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (ChE) from Virginia Tech and his Juris Doctorate (JD) from the University of Dayton.  Mr. Hogans is licensed to practice law in the states of Virginia and New Mexico, as well as, before the Federal Patent Bar.  For more information about Mr. Hogans and his firm please see his filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=602988).