How to write the beneficiary clause of a contract of life insurance

All contracts of life insurance, death or retirement savings have a beneficiary clause. It allows to designate persons who as the case will receive the capital or annuity after your death. It is therefore very important.

This clause may be drafted at the signing of the contract or filed with a notary.

A 'standard' clause contained in the contracts

This clause can be written about just when you complete the subscription of the contract and answers to the most common objectives of transmission. It usually involves that available funds will be forwarded to the death of the Subscriber:

·       spouse or partner from PACS;

·       failing that, his children born or unborn, alive or represented by equal shares;

·       or finally to the other heirs.

Customize the clause...

If the standard clause does not suit you, you can change to denote that you see fit. It is possible to customize this clause according to your wishes: it can be to give priority to a child or a third party, for example, or an association. It is also possible to provide for a different apportionment according to the beneficiaries (50% for my son Paul, 25% to my wife Marie, 25% to my grandson Arthur...), or even to "dismember" the rights of this clause (the usufructuary enjoys the right to enjoyment and revenues of the property and the bare owner covers the full ownership to the extinction of usufruct). In short, one can almost all be! However, some precautions are necessary, including if the beneficiaries are not reserving heirs could ask the judge to return the value of the contract in succession, by invoking the notion of "manifestly exaggerated bonuses.

... The change

Of course, is not the point every year on these issues? And yet, life events (marriage, divorce, breakdown of PACS, births...) make it essential to sometimes ask the question so that this clause is adapted to your situation. If this clause is no longer in line with your wishes of transmission, if you want to add or remove a beneficiary or refine the existing entries, you can do so by sending an email is:

·       Your insurer; the letter must be written, dated and signed by your hand, and include references to your contract as well as a designation very specifies the recipient (s). BYOW notifying these changes will be sent to you by the insurer (if the clause has been drafted by the insurer)

·       To your notary to record your wishes in a will. So the beneficiary rapidly collect funds, don't forget however to mention the references of the contract (name of the insurer, number...). At the same time, don't forget to contact your insurer of the notary responsible for your estate.

The pitfalls to avoid

Designate a single beneficiary is to take the risk, if it disappears prematurely, that capital be reintegrated to the estate and taxed at the scale of human mutation.

·       You can designate multiple beneficiaries jointly (' my spouse and my children born or unborn ' or 'my father and mother') or successively ("my spouse, failing that, my children born or unborn, alive or represented, unless my heirs").Only the mention 'live or represented' helps the children of a deceased beneficiary to be not excluded from sharing.

·       Be specific in the designation of beneficiaries... Avoid formulations little explicit ("my friend Jean") specifying the names, date and place of birth of the beneficiary. Finally, you should be aware that if you specify the recipient by its quality, it is assessed on the date of transmission of the capital: "to my wife" will be one that will have this quality to your death.

·       But do not be too! for example, if you specify 'my children Julie and Sophie', this can problematic with the arrival of a third child, while "my children, living or represented" would have sufficed.