Incorrect Name For Beneficiary

[Guest Shelton]

An IRA owner ( widower)named his live in girlfriend as the beneficiary of his IRA. Instead of using her last name, he used his last name as hers. Example, he was John Doe and he put her name as Jane Doe. Doe is not her legal name. Her social security number was included on the form.

Now that he is deceased, his children and trying to lay claim to the IRA. They claim she is not the beneficiary and are also using the fact that her correct name was not on the form.

What should the custodian do?

[Kirk Maldonado]

Tell her to change her name?

[Guest Shelton]

It would be a good idea, except she can only do that my marriage or deed poll. Deed poll takes awhile.

The issue is, is she entitled to the assets and if so, how does she go about getting the account?

[BPickerCPA]

Why are you asking us? It looks like this is headed for Court, so any conjecture on our part is worthless. What the custodian should do in any case when there is a dispute as to the identity of the beneficiary, is to wait for a settlement or a Court decree. The last thing the custodian needs is to become part of the suit due to an allegation that the account was improperly disbursed.

Having said all that, my (worthless) opinion is that the girlfriend should be able to prove the intent of the decedent to name her as the bene. The SS # should clinch it.

Barry

[Kirk Maldonado]

How about hiring an attorney to file an interpleader action (which would involve depositing the money with the court and asking the court to decide who gets the money)?

[John G]

Identifying someone who lives with you as having your last name is one element of showing a common law marriage. Were the benefitiaries switched or did the account always have the live-in's name as benefitiary from day one. Sounds to me lot sour grapes coming from family members who probably thought the decreased's money was actually theirs.

Ok. How many of the readers of this message actually know the benefitiary designation on the various retirement accounts? Is the benefitiary still alive? Did you designate a secondary benefitiary? Is the benefitiary designation compatible with all other arrangements including the will and trusts?

The original question invites speculation on the merits of the case and what factors known and unkown might be deciding. Is that the way the readers of this post want their affairs to be resolved? Perhaps, the value of the original question is to alert all IRA/retirement account holders to check their benefitiary designations. Less messy, for sure.

[Guest Shelton]

They lived in Florida