Lawrence Koresko, an insurance industry veteran, addresses potential issues with beneficiary designations. Certain life changes like divorce or remarriage can cause confusion if beneficiaries are not explicitly named. Not naming a contingent beneficiary may result in no beneficiary if the primary outlives the policy owner. Designating funds to an estate can delay payout and result in additional costs compared to directly naming beneficiaries.

1. Potential
Issues
Related to
Beneficiary
Designations
Lawrence
Koresko

2. Introduction
The president of Insmax Insurance Brokerage, Inc., Lawrence “Larry” Koresko has worked
in the insurance industry for over two decades. A frequent presenter at industry
seminars, Lawrence Koresko addresses hot-button issues related to beneficiary
designations.
Certain situations may pose challenges in regards to the beneficiaries you have
designated to receive funds from your life insurance plan or other financial product. For
example, a divorce or remarriage may lead to confusion about the identity of the
beneficiaries, especially if they are not explicitly named in the policy. To avoid this issue,
you should name your beneficiaries rather than referring to them with a generic phrase
such as “my children.”
Problems may also arise if you outlive your beneficiary. In this case, it would be as though
you had not designated a beneficiary at all. To prevent this from occurring, you can name
contingent beneficiaries.
You may instead choose to designate that the proceeds go to your estate, which happens
automatically if you do not designate a beneficiary. However, this often results in
additional costs and lengthy delays before funds can be paid out to the heirs of the
estate.