Who is the beneficiary?

I have a client that utilizes individual brokerage accounts for their participants' investments. The Plan requests beneficiary elections from all participants, as does the Custodian. The participant files a beneficiary election with the Custodian, but NOT the Plan. If the participant dies, does the beneficiary election on file with the Custodian stand or would you default to the plan document provisions?

If it is a legit election. referencing the plan and otherwise ok, I see no reason not to use it.

I suppose there's "language" behind the scenes - 

Does the document say the BDF must be submitted to, or simply received by, the Plan Administrator?  And is the contract with the Custodian spelling out that anything they get on behalf of the plan is deemed to be submitted to the PA, since the PA clearly would have access to Custodian's portal as to download their own local copy?

If the plan’s administrator might consider anything submitted to the broker-dealer, among many factors one might consider:

What do the plan’s governing documents require? What do the plan’s governing documents permit? How much discretion do the plan’s governing documents grant the administrator?

Is there a written agreement, one the administrator has rights to enforce, that makes the broker-dealer the administrator’s agent?

What records-retention obligations does that agreement mandate?

What controls does the broker-dealer impose on the beneficiary-designation form to lower the risk of fakes?

Does the broker-dealer reliably date-and-time stamp the writings it receives?

What reporting does the broker-dealer provide to the administrator?

When the administrator instructs the broker-dealer to furnish the writing it received, will it be the original showing the participant’s ink-on-paper handwriting? Or is it merely a scan of the writing received?

For a beneficiary designation that requires the spouse’s consent, will the administrator be able to examine the notary’s seal or stamp?

If the plan’s administrator does not itself have enough expertise to evaluate the soundness, legal effect, and prudence of what would be its agreement with the broker-dealer, has the administrator used outside help to evaluate the agreement?

Does the broker-dealer have enough financial capacity and casualty and other liability insurance to respond to the inevitable errors and lapses in its performance?

Maybe someone should spend a buck for a copier/scanner.

Start with the terms of the plan, as written, and go from there.  I'd have to see the written plan document, for starters, to go further.

How many people are in the plan?  Most plans I worked on with individual broker accounts are pretty small.

It shouldn't be too hard to get proper plan forms.  My first question does the form by the broker make it clear this is a plan asset or is it just some standard broker form?

Just talk to the client and broker and make it clear since this is a plan rules beyond normal securities law apply here.

I am not trying to be mean but what I hear is someones wants to add complexity and ambiguity because they aren't willing to get on the phone and make sure everyone is on the same page.  

I will get off my soap box now. 

Does the Custodian think it can process distributions as well?  It sounds like the Custodian does not have good forms/processes for handling assets that are part of a qualified plan.  We have enough issues with paper forms and web designations being coordinated without having an unauthorized third party try to collect designations.