Life insurance policies require you to choose a beneficiary, which is the person who will be the recipient of your policy’s benefits at the time of payout. Many policies also ask you to choose a ...

Making sure you know who gets your nest egg after your death is important. Source: 401(k) 2012 via Flickr. Estate planning is an important part of ensuring that your assets go where you want them to ...

Key Takeaways Your 401(k) passes to the person you name on a beneficiary form—not through your will.Spouses and non-spouses face different rules and tax implications when inheriting a ...

A contingent beneficiary can help ensure that your assets, trusts and insurance payouts go to the parties you want them to go to. What is a contingent beneficiary? Whether setting up a financial ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. David Kindness is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and an expert in the fields of ...

You need more than a primary beneficiary on your financial accounts... just in case. Contingency beneficiaries can be your Plan B and even Plan C. What is a contingent beneficiary? If that question ...

A secondary beneficiary, also called a contingent beneficiary, is a person or entity entitled to get a distribution of assets from an estate or trust after the estate owner’s death if the primary ...

You might not be able to spend all the money in your 401(k) plan before you die. If that happens, your retirement savings will pass to the person you name as the beneficiary of the account. The ...

It’s wise to select multiple beneficiaries when purchasing life insurance policies. This ensures that your family or loved ones can cover any financial obligations after you’ve passed away. The death ...

When purchasing life insurance, the choice of who to name as beneficiary is one of the most important decisions a person makes. A beneficiary is the person who receives the death benefit. The owner of ...

If the beneficiary of a life insurance policy dies before the insured person, the death benefit will be split among any contingent beneficiaries if there are no contingent beneficiaries, it will be ...