BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION - DRAFTED LANGUAGE AND COMPLETION GUIDANCE
(Prepared for transcription onto the carrier or plan administrator designation form)
KENTUCKY - Johnson Legal PLLC d/b/a Bluegrass Cornerstone
READ THIS FIRST - WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT. THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT ITSELF YOUR BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION. Signing or storing this document designates no one. The operative beneficiary designation is the form your carrier, plan administrator, or financial institution provides and records. Designations are not effective until the carrier records them. This packet gives you three things: (1) drafted designation language to transcribe onto the carrier form; (2) step-by-step completion guidance for your account type; (3) the controlling rules for this account type, framed and reviewed by your attorney.

Account holder: James Edward Whitfield
Address: 15 Beaumont Court, Lexington, KY 40508
Email (packet delivery address): james@example.com

Account type: ERISA-qualified retirement plan (401(k), 403(b), pension)
Institution / carrier: Fidelity Investments
Account or policy number: XXXX-4821
Plan administrator: Acme Corp Benefits Committee

This packet applies ONLY to the account or policy identified above. Each additional account or policy requires its own designation on its own carrier form.

This designation governs an ERISA-qualified retirement plan (for example, a 401(k), 403(b), or pension). Federal law controls it. The preemption clause of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 USC 1144(a), provides that ERISA supersedes state laws insofar as they relate to an employee benefit plan. The United States Supreme Court applied that clause to beneficiary designations in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001): a state statute that purports to change who takes under an ERISA plan is expressly preempted, and the plan administrator pays the beneficiary named in the plan documents. The practical rule for you: THE PLAN DOCUMENT AND THE RECORDED DESIGNATION CONTROL. The beneficiary recorded with the plan administrator takes the account regardless of your will and regardless of contrary state law - keeping the recorded designation current is the only reliable way to direct this asset.

A beneficiary designation overrides your will for the asset it governs. If your will leaves everything to one person but the recorded designation on this account names someone else, the account goes to the recorded beneficiary. The authority depends on the account type: for ERISA-qualified employer plans, federal preemption (29 USC 1144, as construed by Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001)) makes the plan document and its recorded designation controlling; for IRAs and individual life insurance, the account or policy contract controls; for Kentucky pay-on-death (P.O.D.) and multi-party financial accounts, KRS 391.315 passes the funds to the surviving party or the named P.O.D. beneficiary against the estate - and KRS 391.315(5) states expressly that such a right of survivorship or P.O.D. payee designation cannot be changed by will. A stale or inconsistent designation can defeat the rest of your estate plan. The completion guidance below therefore ends with an audit step for your other designated accounts.

For the carrier form - PRIMARY beneficiary (takes the account at your death if surviving):

Full legal name: Sarah Whitfield
Relationship to account holder: adult daughter
SSN or date of birth: DOB 06/10/1990
Percentage allocation: 100%
Address: Not provided at intake - add on the carrier form if the carrier asks

Designation clause (for carrier forms with a free-text designation block): "I designate Sarah Whitfield (adult daughter), DOB 06/10/1990, as PRIMARY beneficiary of account XXXX-4821 at Fidelity Investments, to receive 100% of the account."

Percentages across ALL primary beneficiaries (including the first named above) must total 100% on the carrier form.
Note on predeceased beneficiaries: this drafted language names your beneficiaries directly and adds no per-stirpes or per-capita distribution language (you did not elect one at intake). If a named beneficiary dies before you, the carrier or plan default rules control unless the recorded form says otherwise. If you want a per-stirpes structure - a deceased beneficiary share passing to the descendants of that beneficiary - request a revision and your reviewing attorney will draft it.

For the carrier form - CONTINGENT beneficiary (takes ONLY if all primary beneficiaries predecease you or disclaim):

Full legal name: David Whitfield
Relationship to account holder: adult son
SSN or date of birth: DOB 09/22/1992
Percentage allocation: 100%

Designation clause (for carrier forms with a free-text designation block): "If no primary beneficiary survives me, I designate David Whitfield (adult son), DOB 09/22/1992, as CONTINGENT beneficiary of account XXXX-4821 at Fidelity Investments, to receive 100% of the account."

SPOUSAL CONSENT IS REQUIRED BEFORE THIS DESIGNATION CAN TAKE EFFECT.

You told us you are married and are naming someone other than your spouse as primary beneficiary on an ERISA-qualified plan. Federal law (29 USC 1055 - the QJSA/QPSA rules) makes your spouse the protected default beneficiary of an ERISA-qualified plan. Your election naming someone else does not take effect unless your spouse consents in writing to the election, the consent acknowledges its effect, and the consent is witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public (29 USC 1055(c)(2)(A)).

MANDATORY COMPLETION STEP - DO THIS BEFORE SUBMITTING THE CARRIER FORM: obtain the spousal-consent waiver section of the carrier form, have your spouse sign it, and have that signature witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public. Johnson Legal PLLC cannot waive this requirement, and in nearly all cases the plan administrator will not honor the designation without it.

A successor account owner is a Section 529 plan concept - the person who takes ownership and control of a 529 account at the death of the account owner. It does not apply to the account type you identified, so no successor-owner designation language is included in this packet.

No structural attorney-review flags were triggered by your intake answers. Your reviewing attorney still reviews this entire packet against your intake before delivery - that review is part of every engagement.

Your designation becomes effective ONLY when the carrier records its own completed form. Designations are not effective until the carrier records them. Follow these steps:

1. Request the beneficiary-designation form for your plan from the plan administrator (Acme Corp Benefits Committee). Your employer HR department or the plan website can provide it.
2. Transcribe the drafted designation language from this packet onto the carrier form exactly as written, field by field - every name, relationship, SSN or date of birth, and percentage.
3. MANDATORY: have your spouse sign the spousal-consent waiver on the carrier form, witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public, before you submit (see the SPOUSAL CONSENT section above).
4. Confirm the carrier formalities: some carriers require the full SSN, notarization of your signature, or their own witness rules. The carrier form controls its own execution formalities.
5. Sign the carrier form per those formalities and submit it to the carrier, plan administrator, or bank yourself. Keep a copy of what you submitted.
6. Confirm receipt AND recording: ask for written or online confirmation that the designation is recorded, and keep that confirmation with your estate documents. Designations are not effective until the carrier records them.
7. Audit your other beneficiary-designated accounts so they stay consistent with your estate plan (see the closing note below).

Two rules apply to every step above. First: Transcribe the drafted designation language onto the carrier form exactly as written - do not paraphrase, abbreviate, or reorder; if a carrier field does not match, contact us before improvising. Second: when you update one designation, audit all of your beneficiary-designated accounts (retirement plans, IRAs, life insurance, P.O.D. and TOD accounts, 529 plans) so the designations stay consistent with your will and the rest of your estate plan.

Document prepared by:
Johnson Legal PLLC, operating as Bluegrass Cornerstone (registered Kentucky DBA)
Attorney of record: Durward Elton Johnson, Kentucky Bar # 101547. Prepared from client input as drafted beneficiary-designation language and completion guidance for transcription onto the carrier or plan administrator form; reviewed and approved by a Kentucky-licensed attorney before delivery per KBA Ethics Opinion E-457.