Reviewing Your Beneficiary Designations: When Should You Update Them?
Key Points – Reviewing Your Beneficiary Designations: When Should You Update Them?
- When Is the Last Time You Reviewed Your Beneficiary Designations?
- When Should You Review/Update Your Beneficiary Designations?
- Challenges of Estate Planning
- The Importance of Family Meetings to Discuss Legacy Goals
- 3-Minute Read
When Is the Last Time You Review Your Beneficiary Designations?
Whether you’re reading this in late 2025/early 2026 or several months or years later, ask yourself this: “When is the last time you reviewed your beneficiary designations?” If it’s been several years since you’ve reviewed beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts, investment accounts, bank accounts, life insurance policies, etc., do you remember who you designated to inherit those accounts?
As you can see from our 2026 Financial Planning Calendar, reviewing beneficiary designations is actually listed twice under annual items to review. Additionally, make sure to review your beneficiaries after major life events and update them if necessary. The following events typically can lead to an individual updating their beneficiaries:
- A marriage, divorce, or change in relationship with a family member.
- Death of one of your beneficiaries.
- Birth of a child.
- When creating or updating an estate plan (remember that beneficiary designations take precedent over what someone writes within their will or trust, so they need to match).
- A career change or as you’re preparing to retire.
- Receiving a large inheritance.
7 Challenges of Estate Planning
In this episode of America’s Wealth Management Show, Dean Barber and Chris Rett, CFP®, AIF® reviewed seven different challenges of estate planning, including challenges involving beneficiary designations. It’s important to understand that different accounts and assets have different beneficiary forms and are treated differently in terms of how they pass on to your beneficiaries.
Having Family Meetings
Conversations about estate planning can sometimes be difficult to have with your loved ones. However, what if you become suddenly incapacitated or pass away, and your beneficiaries haven’t been updated in several years? We’re guessing that one of the last things you would want to have happen in that kind of situation is your family fighting over your estate just to have it be decided in probate courts because you hadn’t updated your beneficiaries.
Having family meetings to discuss each other’s wishes can provide clarity for you and your loved ones. If you do end up unexpectedly passing away or becoming incapacitated, that should be a time for your family to grieve, not to be fighting about inheritance.
We’re Here to Help
After you finish reading this article, take another look at our 2026 Financial Planning Calendar. There are several other annual and end-of-year financial checklist items to address as well as important dates and birthdays that shape your financial life to take note of. That can be a lot to keep track of, but you don’t have to do it all on your own.
Our team at Modern Wealth Management is here to help! Our financial advisors are supported by specialists in investments, tax, insurance, and estate and work together to build financial plans that are tailored to each clients’ unique goals. Once we learn about your goals, it’s our job to build a plan that helps you enjoy today and helps give you confidence for tomorrow.
What income sources should you be tapping into at different stages of life? We’ll help you determine that, but first, we need to know what income sources you have. As you’re reviewing all your assets, have you completed the proper beneficiary forms and reviewed them recently? Again, we’re here to assist you with that as well.
If you have any estate planning-related questions and/or want to learn more about our Advantage Offerings in estate, tax, investments, insurance, and financial planning, start a conversation with our team below. We’re ready to deliver you the Modern Wealth Advantage.
Resources Mentioned in This Article
- 2026 Financial Planning Calendar
- 5 Key Estate Planning Items to Address
- What Is a Living Trust and Do I Need One?
- What Is Probate and Why Should I Avoid It?
- Check Your Beneficiaries! Don’t Learn the Hard Way
- What to Do with Inheritance
- Income Planning for Retirement
- 10 Retirement Income Streams
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The views expressed represent the opinion of Modern Wealth Management a Registered Investment Advisor. Information provided is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. Modern Wealth Management does not accept any liability for the use of the information discussed. Consult with a qualified financial, legal, or tax professional prior to taking any action.