Help Beneficiary Designations


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To maintain security and confidentiality, Beneficiary Designations has a timeout of 20 minutes. If there is no activity for 20 minutes, your session will expire without saving any beneficiary changes. If your session does expire, you must sign in again.

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General Information to Get Started

To complete your beneficiary designations, you will be asked to first identify each of your beneficiaries. Then you will indicate whether the beneficiary is primary or secondary (contingent) and assign a percentage to each plan.

Designation of a beneficiary may have significant tax and inheritance consequences for your estate and for the beneficiary. Consult your attorney or tax advisor for more information.

If you are married, your spouse may have a legal interest in this designation of beneficiary. A beneficiary designation may be subject to challenge if it will result in your spouse receiving less than his or her proportionate share of the benefit attributable to community property. UCRS may modify a designation of beneficiary to comply with a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO).

If you name a minor as a beneficiary, and you die before the minor reaches age 18, a guardianship of the estate may need to be established before benefits can be paid.

Beneficiary designations are contractual in nature and generally avoid probate unless the estate is named as beneficiary. Consult your attorney for more information and advice.

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Naming a Beneficiary

You may name as many beneficiaries as you like. Your beneficiaries may be a person, a trust, a charity or entity. A "person" includes any entity capable of taking and holding property. You may name your estate as beneficiary and provide for payment in a will.

You must assign a whole percentage (for example, 33, rather than 33.3) to each beneficiary for each plan. The percentage shares for your primary beneficiaries must total 100%. The percentage shares for your secondary (contingent) beneficiaries must total 100%. Or you may check equal (Eq) to have the shares divided equally to the beneficiaries specified.

Provide, and keep current, information that will be used to locate your beneficiaries upon your death. You may use this online service to update your beneficiary’s address and other identifying information.

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Updating Information for Existing Beneficiaries

To update a beneficiary's information, click on the beneficiary's name. On the Edit page you can add or change your beneficiary's address, Social Security number, date of birth, name spelling, etc. Once you complete the updates, you'll be routed to the Manage Beneficiaries page. If you are also changing the share percentages select "Change Designations". Otherwise, click on the "Review & Confirm" button to begin saving your changes.

An example:

  Name SSN/TIN DOB/Trust Date Action
Trust DOE FAMILY TRUST
DOE, JANE
Address same as member
Not specified 01/01/2001 Edit | Delete
Child DOE, JANIE
Address same as member
Not specified 12/04/1978 Edit | Delete
Child DOE, JOEY
1234 ANYSTREET
ANYWHERE, CA 94610
Not specified 06/09/1985 Edit | Delete
Spouse/DP DOE, JOHN
Address same as member
123-45-6789 01/01/1958 Edit | Delete

You may also delete an existing beneficiary or add new ones on this page. You must redo your assignments when a beneficiary is added or deleted.

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Changing Designations

Example 1:

You are naming the same beneficiaries and shares as primary and secondary for all plans. Click on the 'Same for All Plans' tab.

Your primary beneficiaries are John with a 50% share, and your children Janie and Joey each with 25%. Your trust is the secondary beneficiary. Below is how the page should be completed:

By Plan Same for All Plans  
Beneficiary   Primary Secondary
  % Share Equal % Share Equal
DOE FAMILY TRUST
   Trust Date: 01/01/2001
DOE, JANIE
   Date of Birth: 12/04/1978
DOE, JOEY
   Date of Birth: 06/09/1985
DOE, JOHN
   Date of Birth: 01/01/1958
Total %     

Example 2:

You are naming different beneficiaries and shares to your plans.

For UCRP/CAP, your beneficiaries are sharing equally as the primary beneficiaries. There are no secondary beneficiaries.

John is the primary beneficiary to the Basic or Core Life Insurance. Janie and Joey are the secondary beneficiaries with Janie receiving 62% and Joey receiving 38%. UC Regents is not assigned to this plan. Below is how this part of the page should be completed:

 By Plan   Same for All Plans  
  Beneficiary   Primary Secondary
    % Share Equal % Share Equal
UCRP/CAP      
  DOE, JANIE  -  Child
  DOE, JOEY  -  Child
  DOE, JOHN  -  Spouse/DP
  UC Regents  -  UC Regents
  Totals %     
Basic/Core Life      
  DOE, JANIE  -  Child
  DOE, JOEY  -  Child
  DOE, JOHN  -  Spouse/DP
  UC Regents  -  UC Regents
  Totals %     

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Changing Your Beneficiary

You may change your beneficiary at any time either online or by submitting a form. Once UC HR/Benefits accepts the new designation, all previous designations are invalid. When using this online service, UC HR/Benefits indicates acceptance of your changes by issuing a confirmation number.

Changes to your family situation-- for example, marriage or divorce-- do not automatically alter or revoke your existing beneficiary designations. Review your beneficiary designations whenever there is a change in your family situation. A will does not supersede a beneficiary designation.

The UC Retirement Savings Program (403(b), 457(b), and Defined Contribution) beneficiary designations are record kept by Fidelity Retirement Services. You can view and update your beneficiary designations at https://myucretirement.com or contact Fidelity Retirement Services at 1-866-682-7787. If you are enrolled in the Blue Shield Health Savings Plan, you may update your beneficiaries at http://www.healthequity.com/ed/uc

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When A Beneficiary Dies

Review your beneficiary designations periodically to make sure they are still up to date. If one of your primary beneficiaries dies, but remains listed as your primary beneficiary, that share will be divided proportionately among the remaining primary beneficiaries.

Example:

You name Amy, Ben, and Charles as your primary beneficiaries. You assign 10% to Amy, 40% to Ben, and 50% to Charles.

Charles dies.

If you do not update your beneficiary designations, upon your death, Amy will receive 20%, and Ben will receive 80%.

You may also designate secondary (contingent) beneficiaries to receive benefits. Secondary (contingent) beneficiaries receive benefits only if ALL primary beneficiaries are deceased.

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When You Do Not Name a Beneficiary

If you do not name a beneficiary, or if no primary or secondary (contingent) beneficiary survives you, benefits will be paid based on the order of succession as follows:

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Enrollments and Eligibility for Plans

You are asked to designate beneficiaries for all UC-sponsored plans that require beneficiary information. You may not be enrolled in or eligible for all of the plans.

Employees are asked to designate beneficiaries for the Retirement & Savings plans and the Insurance plans. These may include: UCRP/CAP, Basic or Core Life, Supplemental Life, Senior Management Life, AD&D, and Business Travel. These beneficiaries are record kept at UC and can be viewed and updated using this online service. Beneficiary designations for the UC Retirement Savings Program (403(b), 457(b), and Defined Contribution) are record kept by Fidelity Retirement Services. You can view and update your beneficiary designations at https://myucretirement.com or contact Fidelity Retirement Services at 1-866-682-7787. If you are enrolled in the Blue Shield Health Savings Plan, you may update your beneficiaries at http://www.healthequity.com/ed/uc

You are the beneficiary if you are enrolled in Expanded Dependent Life, AD&D Family, or AD&D Modified Family, and a covered family member dies. To designate someone else to receive benefits if a covered family member dies, use the Designation of Alternate Beneficiary form available on UCnet at: http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/forms/pdf/uben-119.pdf. You will not be able to view or update your alternate beneficiary using this online service.

If you are a faculty member who is in the Health Science Compensation (HSC) plan, and have a component of salary covered under the HSC Insurance plans, contact the person in your department who administers benefits for more information on designating a beneficiary. You will not be able to view or update your beneficiary for the HSC Insurance plans using this online service.

If you are on a Waiver of Premium to continue certain Insurance plans while on UCRP Disability Income or an approved leave, note that the beneficiary designations are administered directly by the Insurance carrier. UC HR/Benefits does not maintain beneficiary designations for those Insurance plans.

In some instances, a retiree may continue certain Insurance plans into retirement. Premium payments and beneficiary designations are administered directly by the Insurance carrier. UC HR/Benefits does not maintain beneficiary designations for retirees enrolled in Insurance plans. If you are re-hired, you must re-designate beneficiaries for the Insurance plans.

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Questions or Problems

If you have questions or problems using this Beneficiary Designations online service, please contact the Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC).

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