What is the difference between primary and secondary beneficiaries

Primary vs. secondary beneficiary? Primary vs. contingent beneficiary? Secondary vs. contingent beneficiary? What does this mean? This guide will cover the basics and differences between a primary beneficiary, a secondary beneficiary, and a contingent beneficiary.

Table of Contents Show

What is a Contingent Beneficiary?
Need Help Getting Life Insurance Coverage?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a primary beneficiary?
What is a contingent beneficiary?
What are the rights of a beneficiary?
How to Designate or Update Your Beneficiaries
Can there be two primary beneficiaries?
What does it mean to be a second beneficiary?
How do you choose primary and secondary beneficiaries?
What happens if there are 2 beneficiaries?

This applies to life insurance, annuities, IRAs, and more.

The primary beneficiary is the person or entity with the first claim to inherit your assets after your death. You can name as many primary beneficiaries as you want and designate how they will receive their share of the asset following your death if the death benefit equals 100% of the total assets.

What is a Contingent Beneficiary?

What happens if the primary beneficiary dies before the insured dies? A contingent beneficiary (also known as the secondary beneficiary) is the second in line to inherit your assets – if any, described in your will, retirement account, or annuity. If the primary beneficiary or beneficiaries die before the inheritance is claimed, the contingent beneficiary will inherit the death benefit.

For example, you name your spouse the designated primary beneficiary and the children the contingent beneficiary. If your spouse dies before you, the children will inherit the assets.

Need Help Getting Life Insurance Coverage?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a primary beneficiary?

A primary beneficiary is a person or entity first in line to receive benefits from a policy, plan, or estate. The primary beneficiary has precedence over all other beneficiaries.

What is a contingent beneficiary?

A contingent beneficiary is a person or entity next in line to receive benefits from a policy, plan, or estate if the primary beneficiary dies or is otherwise unable to collect. The contingent beneficiary only receives benefits if the primary beneficiary cannot.

What are the rights of a beneficiary?

Beneficiaries have the right to information about the policy, plan, or estate they receive benefits. They also have the right to change their status as a beneficiary and waive their rights if they so choose.

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Overview

A beneficiary receives financial benefits in the event of the insured's death. You can assign beneficiaries to the following Vanderbilt benefits:

Life Insurance
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance (AD&D)
Retirement

Beneficiaries can be Primary or Contingent (also called Secondary).

A primary beneficiary is the first person you name to receive the proceeds from your insurance policy upon your death. You can designate 100% of the proceeds to one primary beneficiary or you can divide the proceeds among multiple primary beneficiaries.
A contingent (or secondary) beneficiary receives the proceeds from your insurance policy only if the primary beneficiary (or beneficiaries) are deceased or do not meet the criteria for the policy.

When adding a dependent in My VU Benefits, if you indicate the relationship as a beneficiary, you will not be able to add them to your benefits as dependents. All benefits eligible dependents should be added as either your spouse, child, etc., and they can also be added as a beneficiary to your life insurance, voluntary accidental death and dismemberment insurance and the retirement plans. To have a beneficiary changed to a dependent, contact the Human Resources to request the change. Please do not create a new record for this beneficiary, as doing so will create a duplicate record.

How to Designate or Update Your Beneficiaries

You can designate and/or update your beneficiaries at any time during the year. Any changes you make are effective immediately. Note that you can have different beneficiaries for Life Insurance, AD&D, and Retirement.

Basic and Supplemental Life Insurance

Go to My VU Benefits.
Log in with your VUnetID and ePassword.
Go to the Home navigation link in the top horizontal navigation bar and then select My Beneficiaries from the dropdown menu.
You will see your current beneficiaries. You can add a new beneficiary at any time. You also can assign allocation amounts for each beneficiary, for both primary and secondary (also called contingent).
- To remove a beneficiary, change the percentage for that beneficiary to "0." Then allocate the percentage for the new beneficiary(ies) to equal 100%. Click "Apply to All," and then click "Save."
- To edit a beneficiary's name, click on that name and the "Edit Beneficiary" dialog box will open. Make your changes and click "Save And Close." Then click "Save" on the page listing your beneficiaries. Note that the system may take a few minutes to display the change. You can make any changes to a beneficiary’s information, but to make changes to a dependent’s birthdate or Social Security number, contact the Human Resources.

Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance (AD&D)
By default, your AD&D beneficiaries will be the same as your Life Insurance beneficiaries. If you would like to designate a different beneficiary for AD&D, follow these instructions:

Go to My VU Benefits.
Log in with your VUnetID and ePassword.
Go to the Home navigation link in the top horizontal navigation bar and then select My Beneficiaries from the dropdown menu.
You will see a section for Voluntary Accidental Death and Dismemberment. You can add a new beneficiary or edit allocation amounts for existing beneficiaries.
- To remove a beneficiary, change the percentage for that beneficiary to "0." Then allocate the percentage for the new beneficiary(ies) to equal 100%. Click "Apply to All," and then click "Save."
- To edit a beneficiary's name, click on that name and the "Edit Beneficiary" dialog box will open. Make your changes and click "Save And Close." Then click "Save" on the page listing your beneficiaries. Note that the system may take a few minutes to display the change. You can make any changes to a beneficiary’s information, but to make changes to a dependent’s birthdate or Social Security number, contact the Human Resources.

Retirement
Please use the NetBenefits website.

Can there be two primary beneficiaries?

Key Takeaways. A primary beneficiary is a person or entity named to receive the benefit of a will, trust, insurance policy, or investment account. More than one primary beneficiary can be named, with the grantor able to direct particular percentages to each.

What does it mean to be a second beneficiary?

Secondary Beneficiary — the person named to receive benefits if the primary beneficiary is not alive upon the death of the insured or if the primary beneficiary does not collect all benefits before his or her own death.

How do you choose primary and secondary beneficiaries?

Your primary beneficiary is first in line to receive your death benefit. If the primary beneficiary dies before you, a secondary or contingent beneficiary is the next in line. Some people also designate a final beneficiary in the event the primary and secondary beneficiaries die before they do.

What happens if there are 2 beneficiaries?

If you have multiple primary beneficiaries and one dies, the death benefit is split among the remaining beneficiaries. For example, if your spouse and your sibling are both named as primary beneficiaries on your policy, they would each get 50% of your death benefit.