how beneficiaries work
any person or organization can be named a beneficiary to receive your property after you pass away the individual who owns the property or the benefactor can put various stipulations on the disbursement of property these might include the requirement that a beneficiary is a certain age or is married before taking control of the inherited property beneficiaries designated on the paperwork for financial accounts override any beneficiary listed in a will 1there can be tax consequences for the beneficiary when inheriting certain financial assets for example if someone is the beneficiary of a life insurance policy it s useful to know that while the principal of most policies is not taxed the accrued interest might be 2failure to name beneficiaries on your financial accounts can result in the financial institution that holds the assets having to make decisions about the distribution of the assets failure to name beneficiaries in a will can tie up your property in probate potentially for years it can leave the decision about how to distribute your assets up to the state in which you live in either case the people for whom you wanted to provide financial support after your death may not receive it or they may have to wait a long time for it 