Prepare a retirement-plan beneficiary designation and a validity checklist
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- Extract the current designation, the plan’s beneficiary rule and the people named in the draft form. Do not submit the form.
- What the lawyer must review
- The IRS beneficiary page states that a beneficiary is the person or entity the account owner chooses to receive the account after death, that the owner must designate the beneficiary under the plan’s procedures, and that some plans require specific beneficiaries, such as a spouse or child. After death, distribution depends on the year of death, whether the beneficiary is a spouse, and, for deaths in 2020 or later, whether the beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary. An eligible designated beneficiary on that page is a spouse or minor child, a disabled or chronically ill individual, or an individual not more than 10 years younger than the owner. You read the plan document and the current IRS page before the form is submitted. A will does not replace a missing designation. Opinion 512: do not put the family’s details into a public tool.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUSNZ
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Potential support includes extracting and organising information and preparing preliminary structure or wording. Confirm the tool’s capability and permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Review the original source set for relevant material absent from the output, including contrary evidence, qualifications and remaining gaps.
- Verify the applicable jurisdiction and the version of each relevant law, rule or instrument in force at the material time.
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.