Be Sure to Keep your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date

June 22, 2015

Life changes often result in the need to update beneficiary designations for your Welfare, Pension, Annuity and Vacation benefits. You should be certain that your beneficiary designations on file at the Benefit Funds Office and Prudential reflect your current wishes.

It is not uncommon for people to mistakenly believe that a divorce judgment or separation agreement automatically revokes any prior designations of their former spouse as the beneficiary for their benefits. However, the Benefit Funds are generally obligated to pay benefits to the last beneficiaries you designated. It often does not matter that you might be divorced from your last beneficiary or that your former spouse might have agreed to waive all of his/her rights to your benefits in your separation agreement or a waiver form. If you have not changed your beneficiary designation in writing with the Fund Office and Prudential, your former spouse may very likely be entitled to your benefits. *For your Annuity and Pension benefits, if you re-marry, your new spouse generally will be entitled to those benefits unless a qualified domestic relations order (“QDRO”) awards benefits to your former spouse.

The good news is that it is very easy to change your beneficiary if that is what you want to do. To check or change your beneficiary for your Pension, Welfare and Vacation benefits, please contact the Fund Office at (800) 529-FUND (3863). You can also find the form on our website at www.nyccbf.org/member/members-documents/. To check or change your beneficiary for your Annuity benefits, please go to www.prudential.com/online/retirement or call (877) 778-2100.