Keep Your Beneficiary Designations Up-to-Date

What is a beneficiary?

A beneficiary is the person or persons you designate to receive any benefits payable upon your death. Naming beneficiaries ensures that your assets are distributed according to your wishes after your death.

Keep your beneficiary designations up-to-date

To protect your beneficiary(ies), review and update your beneficiary designations regularly. You may change your beneficiary designations at any time.  Review of your designations for possible changes is especially important when you have experienced a life event, such as the birth or adoption of a child, marriage, divorce, etc. Your assets are distributed according to the beneficiary designations that you have on file, so it is important to review and make any needed changes whenever your personal circumstances change.

How do I know what benefits I have?

Go to the Benefit Information module in My UW System, and click the “View Benefits Summary Detail” link to see your current benefit enrollments. Contact the benefits office with any questions regarding your coverage and coverage levels.

Completing/updating your beneficiary designations

Beneficiary designation forms can be found at: https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/formspubs/.  Click on each individual plan for the beneficiary designation form for that plan.  Follow the instructions to submit the form.

Make sure you keep a copy of each completed beneficiary form for your records. Return completed forms to the address on the form, not to the Benefits office.

If you are unsure of your current beneficiary designations, please complete a new beneficiary designation to ensure that your designations are current.

The following plans have a beneficiary designation form:

If you have a Tax-Sheltered Annuity (TSA) or Deferred Compensation account, make sure you review and update your beneficiary designations as needed. Contact the plan directly to update your beneficiary designations or, if you are enrolled in the TSA program, update your beneficiary online.

Source: UW Service Center