Protection
What financial protection would the household need if someone died or could no longer fulfill their current financial role? Consider existing life insurance and other applicable protection before adding something new.
Planning What's Next
Planning Your Legacy
Legacy planning is about more than having life insurance. It includes understanding the protection you have, making sure beneficiary designations reflect your intentions, helping the people you care about know what exists, organizing important financial-account information, and preparing for benefits and relationships to continue when they are needed.
Research
What the research shows.
Third-party research helps explain why beneficiary readiness deserves attention. Each finding below is attributed to its original source.
59%
of consumers surveyed by TransUnion said they did not know how to determine whether they were the beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Source: TransUnion, 2025 Life Insurance Annual Outlook, reporting 2024 consumer survey findings.
Beneficiary designations can remain in effect for long periods without being reviewed or updated. The U.S. Department of Labor has noted that participants may forget whom they designated as beneficiaries — or may not know whether they completed a beneficiary designation.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
30%
of parents in Fidelity's 2025 Family & Finance Study had not created a will and estate plan they felt confident about. Fidelity's research also identifies communication gaps between generations involving inheritance, wishes, and future responsibilities.
What's changing
Here's what typically shifts.
A beneficiary designation is only useful if it works when it matters. Life changes over time. Families change. Addresses change. Relationships change. Financial accounts change. Yet beneficiary designations — and the information needed to connect benefits with the people they were intended for — may remain untouched for years.
What to consider
Questions worth asking.
Beneficiary Designations
Are beneficiaries named where appropriate, do the designations still reflect current intentions, and are contingent beneficiaries addressed where appropriate?
Awareness
Do the people who may eventually need this information know that benefits, policies, accounts, or important documents exist? The goal is appropriate awareness, not unrestricted access to private financial information.
Organization
Can the household identify important insurance policies, financial accounts, benefit relationships, and trusted professionals?
Keeping Current
Have designations and related information been reviewed after meaningful changes — marriage, divorce, birth or adoption, a death, retirement, a job change, or new financial accounts?
Continuity
If something happens, will the household know where to start? That is benefit and relationship continuity.
Beneficiary readiness
Are your beneficiaries ready?
Beneficiary preparedness involves more than entering a name on a form. Official designations remain with the applicable carrier, financial institution, retirement plan, employer, or other institution.
Named
Has a beneficiary been designated where appropriate?
Current
Does the designation still reflect the account or policy owner's intentions?
Known
Is there an appropriate level of awareness that the benefit, policy, or account exists?
Prepared
Would the appropriate people know where to begin when a benefit eventually needs to transition?
Benefits you may already have
Start with what already exists.
Understanding what already exists can help reveal what is protected, what is organized, and what may still need attention. We do not provide legal or tax conclusions about ownership, beneficiary rights, transfer-on-death treatment, probate, wills, trusts, or estate administration.
- Workplace life insurance, including employer-paid and voluntary coverage.
- Individually owned life insurance and annuities.
- Retirement accounts and any related beneficiary designations.
- Bank, credit-union, and investment accounts.
- Transfer-on-death or payable-on-death arrangements, where applicable.
- Other relevant workplace benefits.
- Important financial and insurance relationships, including trusted professionals.
A life change doesn’t always mean you need new insurance.
Household considerations
Who else could this change affect?
Your legacy is about people, not just accounts. Legacy readiness is a household consideration, not an individual one.
- A spouse or partner, who may rely on continuing protection and information.
- Children, grandchildren, and other dependents.
- Caregivers and other beneficiaries.
- The people who would be responsible for helping the household after a death or incapacity.
Beneficiary readiness technology
A more proactive way to prepare.
Benefits Beyond Work uses BenNex™ technology from sister company Beneficiary ProActive™ to support beneficiary preparedness and continuity across the household.
Benefits Beyond Work provides the relationship, guidance, and insurance experience. BenNex™ is the enabling beneficiary-readiness technology, and Beneficiary ProActive™ is the sister company that provides it.
BenNex™ can support an organized beneficiary-readiness experience, while official beneficiary designations remain with the applicable insurance carrier, financial institution, retirement plan, employer, investment provider, or other institution.
Relevant solutions
Given what's changing, here's where we can help.
Legacy is the primary connection here, with retirement-related beneficiary considerations where genuinely relevant.
Retirement
Insurance-based solutions that address income, longevity, and protection needs in retirement.
Explore RetirementLegacy
Life insurance, beneficiary preparedness, financial-account organization, and household benefit continuity.
Explore Legacy
Financial Relationship Manager
You don’t have to work out everything a change affects on your own. A Financial Relationship Manager helps you understand what is changing and what may need attention — so you don't have to figure that out on your own first.
Some legacy decisions require specialized expertise.
A Financial Relationship Manager can help identify what may need attention and coordinate appropriate next steps. When legal, tax, estate-planning, investment, or other specialized advice is required, the appropriate professional should provide that expertise.
Related life changes
Changes that often arrive together.
- Losing a Loved OneNavigate benefit continuity, insurance considerations, beneficiary preparedness, financial accounts, and relationships that may need attention.
- RetiringCoordinate the transition from workplace benefits across Medicare, healthcare, retirement, and legacy needs. For the transition happening now.
- Growing Your FamilyMarriage, birth, adoption, and changing household protection needs.
Make it easier for the people you care about to know what comes next.
Start by understanding what you have, who it is intended for, what may need updating, and how the household can be better prepared.