Retirement account beneficiary and a revocable trust

[Anonymous]

My parent has dementia, and I handle the finances and the trust.

There are two of us who will inherit, and there's a chance one of us will die before the parent does. If a retirement account has two beneficiaries--with money to be divided 50-50--and one person dies, what happens to the money? Does it go to the one remaining beneficiary?

[Anonymous]

Interesting question. It goes to you I assume but I am not a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting question. It goes to you I assume but I am not a lawyer.

Thank you. I'll ask my lawyer about it. I think my parent's intention would be for some to go to the grandchildren. I personally would not mind sharing it.

If our almost grown children inherited, I think we'd want some guardrails for the money. It can be damaging to inherit a lot at a young age.

OP

[Anonymous]

Typically it would go to the beneficiaries’ kids if they have kids…but that needs to be spelled out in the trust.

Usually there is standard trust language to handle that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typically it would go to the beneficiaries’ kids if they have kids…but that needs to be spelled out in the trust.

Usually there is standard trust language to handle that.

And if there are no kids, then it usually would go to any living siblings.

[Anonymous]

It would go to the surviving beneficiary.

[Anonymous]

Based on the above, op, it’s clear that it depends on what the beneficiary terms of the retirement account says.

[Anonymous]

The estate docs should already spell this out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would go to the surviving beneficiary.

Which is OP in this case

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that retirement accounts with beneficiaries are separate from the trust. Beneficiaries on bank accounts trump wills/trusts. Are there secondary beneficiaries listed in the retirement accounts?

[Anonymous]

If one of the primary beneficiaries dies before the parent, the parent should change their beneficiaries to reflect the new designation. I am not sure if a POA could do that if the parent is unable to, but that is something you/parent could look into before the time comes.

[Anonymous]

What state?

[Anonymous]

Yes goes to remaining beneficiary unless it is per stripes then could go to deceased beneficiaries kids if any.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would go to the surviving beneficiary.

This. Unless per stripes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would go to the surviving beneficiary.

Only if that’s what the trust says. The trust may have contingent beneficiaries in the event a beneficiary dies first.