Get Client’s IRA Custodian to Follow Recommended Beneficiary DesignationGet Client’s IRA Custodian to Follow Recommended Beneficiary Designation

As financial planners and advisors, we routinely request that the drafter of the client estate-planning documents provide the appropriate language for beneficiary designations that apply to life insurance, qualified plans and individual retirement accounts at custodian entities. These attorneys sometimes offer to complete the beneficiary designation form for the client IRA account custodians. But, how often is any effort made to confirm that the custodian will follow the implementation scheme drafted by the attorney?

My company finds that custodians won’t accept or process beneficiary designations uniformly. Best practices would be to have an agreement among the client, the attorney and the account representative as to which of the three ...