This is a true story…
Bob and Mary got married in their early 20’s.
By age 30, they were divorced.
Bob remarried Suzy a few years later, had 2 kids, and bought a house with a white picket fence.
And he lived happily ever.
Unfortunately, he didn’t die happily ever after.
You see Bob was one of the smart ones and funded his 401k nice and early… while he was still married to Mary.
After adding to it diligently over the years, he had nearly $10,000,000 in his 401k when he died 60 years later.
Sounds good, right?
Well, it would have been if Bob had updated his beneficiary.
When Bob died, he still had Mary – his ex-wife from over 60 years ago – listed as his beneficiary.
Clearly, this was a simple oversight.
Suzy and the kids were listed as the beneficiaries everywhere else – the trust, life insurance – EVERYTHING – except this one gigantic 401k.
So as you would expect, Suzy and the kids went to court to plead their case to the judge and get the inheritance that SURELY Bob had meant to leave them.
And guess what happened?
The judge said “So Sad. Too Bad.”
The beneficiary is the beneficiary. It’s as iron-clad as it gets, even if it was obviously a mistake.
So the ex-wife got the money and lived – and died – happily ever after.
THAT’S WHY we diligently double-check your beneficiaries once a year.
