Beneficiary Dunkirk NY

Whether you personally take out a life insurance policy or receive one as part of your benefit package at work, it is important to carefully consider who you will choose to receive the proceeds of your life insurance policy upon your death. Many people choose their spouse or their children to be their beneficiaries; some choose charitable organizations and some have even chosen their pets!

Beneficiaries of life insurance policies are able to collect the money without going through probate; the legal process that takes place in court before the estate can be divided. Beneficiaries of life insurance policies only have the life insurance company to deal with; they don't have to go to court at all. Beneficiaries of life insurance policies can often receive the proceeds of the policy within 3 or 4 weeks; assuming all the paperwork is in order and the life insurance company has received all the requested documentation.

Once you do choose the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, it's important to keep this information up-to-date, as circumstances in your life may change and you may want to change the beneficiary. This is easy to do; you simply fill out another form and send it to the life insurance company or give it to the benefits director at your place of employment.

You want to make sure that the people you intend to receive your life insurance proceeds after your death are indeed the ones that receive the money. You can choose multiple beneficiaries; in fact, this is preferable to simply choosing one beneficiary and then asking that person to see to it that others get a portion of the proceeds. By choosing all your beneficiaries yourself, you can be assured that your life insurance proceeds will be distributed in exactly the way that you want them to be.

When you name more than one person as beneficiary to your life insurance policy, it is important that you ascertain which percentage of the proceeds should go to which individual. For example, you may have 2 children that you want to equally share the proceeds; in this case, you would allocate 50% to one child and 50% to the other. However, there may be a spouse that you would like to allocate 50% to and then equally divide the other 50% to both children, which would mean that you would allocate 50% to your spouse and then 25% to each of your children.

You should be very specific when allocating the proceeds of your life insurance policy to your beneficiaries. Whether you have 2 or 10 beneficiaries, by allocating a certain percentage to each one, there will be no question as to your intentions. The life insurance company will pay the claim as it is written and it is up to you to make sure that that accurately reflects your intentions.

Keep in mind that if you don't designate a certain percentage of your life insurance proceeds to go to each beneficiary, your life insurance company will likely distribute the proceeds equally. This is important to know because if you intend for 10% of your insurance proceeds to go to your church or a charitable organization and the rest to your spouse or child, you must put that in writing or all beneficiaries will share equally.

This step is sadly overlooked far too often by people who think they have years left to live and will "get around" to it. However, as stated above, your life insurance company will distribute the proceeds of your policy the way that you have instructed them to; not the way that you intended to instruct them. You should make it a habit to go over any beneficiary designations that you have once a year to make sure that the way it is on paper is still the way that you want your proceeds to be divided in the event of your death.

If you should change your mind about naming someone as beneficiary of your life insurance policy, you don't have to worry that they may be contacted. You simply fill out a new beneficiary designation form, make a copy for your records and see that the appropriate person or agency receives the form. You should never designate someone as a beneficiary because you feel pressured to or keep someone as your beneficiary when you have moved on.