Anyone here with a legal background?

[SBUBandit]

I am in the middle of modifying my 401k, specifically my contingent beneficiary. My primary is of course my wife, but we have no children, so if anything were to happen to both of us, I want to make sure whatever little bit I have goes to my 4 nieces. I have an idea of how I want to word it, but have a couple questions about it. Just want to see if anyone here has a background in this type of thing before I bother typing in the wording I was going to use and seeing if someone can help me a little. Thanks.

Edit:
Had a little more time this afternoon to type up what i wanted and here is what I have so far:

Provided that any of my nieces predecease me, the surviving children of any such niece shall receive in equal portions the share their parent would have received, if living. If no child of a deceased niece survives, the share of that niece of mine shall go to the surviving nieces or their children, equally.

The 4 nieces names and info and all that will be listed just above that paragraph. Here is my dilemma. All 4 nieces are currently minors, although 2 of them won't be for much longer. I'd like to be sure that should something happen, none of them got anything until the age of 25, as I don't think any kid under 25 is ready to be handed any amount of money. I do not however wish to leave it to their parents, as I want it to go only to the intended nieces. Anyone who can provide some insight into the proper way to word that would be greatly appreciated

 

[b.paine]

Make it all payable to your estate. Enen your life insurance, then you only have to have a will. They call it per stripes when you want to leave it as you have described, to your neices, or their offspring if they predecease you. spend $ 75 bucks for the will.......good luck

 

[SBUBandit]

Make it all payable to your estate. Enen your life insurance, then you only have to have a will. They call it per stripes when you want to leave it as you have described, to your neices, or their offspring if they predecease you. spend $ 75 bucks for the will.......good luck

Makes sense. I'll use that paragraph as is for now and once i have a will done I'll edit it to make it payable to the estate. Thanks

 

[navigator]

Makes sense. I'll use that paragraph as is for now and once i have a will done I'll edit it to make it payable to the estate. Thanks

I think the default is for it to be payable to the estate. The more important piece is who the estate goes to(the will).

 

[Uncle Blazer]

Personally, I would have a lawyer look at it to ensure the money will go where you want it when you want it. I have heard of instances where a LW&T has been considered void for some technical mumbo jumbo. I work in retirement plans and have seen more than a few people get pissed off because they thought they were entitled to all/part of a balance. Again, with something as specific as this, a lawyer is well worth the money; even if it is just for the peace of mind that you have it right(legally speaking).

 

[SBUBandit]

Personally, I would have a lawyer look at it to ensure the money will go where you want it when you want it. I have heard of instances where a LW&T has been considered void for some technical mumbo jumbo. I work in retirement plans and have seen more than a few people get pissed off because they thought they were entitled to all/part of a balance. Again, with something as specific as this, a lawyer is well worth the money; even if it is just for the peace of mind that you have it right(legally speaking).

Agreed. Once I do a will I plan to have that done properly, rather than a do it yourself type thing. For now this ought to suffice, only because the account is just being set up, so if I kick it tomorrow they're only splitting about $10 anyways, lol. I'll be sure to have a real will done before long that spells everything out properly, and be sure the 401k is addressed again.