Estate planning at Great-West Life
How to protect 8 Great-West Life accounts — manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust online, and file death claims
Brand change
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was renamed to Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America effective August 1, 2022. The legal entity, EINs, contract numbers, and beneficiary designations were unchanged; retirement and in-plan annuity business is now serviced under the Empower brand. Legacy individual life insurance and individual annuity contracts sold to Protective Life on June 1, 2019 are serviced by Protective, not Empower. Effective August 2022.
Great-West Life is now part of Empower. The procedures below reflect Great-West Life's accounts during the transition. View the Empower estate planning page.
Participant Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111)
Participant Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111)
Empower Beneficiary Support Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111). Empower handles death claims on retirement plans, IRAs, and in-plan annuities only; legacy Great-West INDIVIDUAL life and individual annuity contracts are claimed from Protective Life.
Great-West Life offers 8 consumer annuity contracts that interact with estate planning in distinct ways. Of those, 8 can name a trust as beneficiary or be retitled into a trust. Understanding the transfer methods available for each account type helps families keep assets out of probate and ensure they pass to the right people.
Managing beneficiaries at Great-West Life is straightforward—changes can be made online, by mail, and by phone, typically taking 10-20 minutes online; 2-4 weeks for mail processing. Trust funding is also available, allowing families to retitle accounts into a trust.
Great-West Life provides specific procedures for both proactive estate planning and filing claims after a death.
Preparing your estate
Beneficiaries and trust funding
How to manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust online, and review 8 account types at Great-West Life.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
7-step process, 7 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
No. Employer-sponsored plan accounts (401(k), 403(b), 457(b)) and IRAs (Traditional and Roth) cannot be retitled into a trust under federal tax law - they must remain individually owned. The same applies to in-plan annuity contracts such as SecureFoundation II, Smart Track, and the general-account fixed product, because they sit inside the underlying plan or IRA. The trust path for these accounts is to name the trust as primary or contingent beneficiary. Update the designation at https://participant.empower-retirement.com or by submitting a Beneficiary Designation Form to Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764. Spousal consent (notarized) is required on most 401(k) and 403(b) plans if the trust is named instead of the spouse.
Sources
- empower.com
- ada.protective.com
- claims.protective.com
- docs.empower.com
- greatwestlifeco.com
- participant.empower-retirement.com
- protective.com
Data sourced from Great-West Life primary sources (15 pages reviewed). How we research.
Participant Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111)
Participant Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111)
Empower Beneficiary Support Services
Empower, P.O. Box 173764, Denver, CO 80217-3764 (express mail: 8515 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111). Empower handles death claims on retirement plans, IRAs, and in-plan annuities only; legacy Great-West INDIVIDUAL life and individual annuity contracts are claimed from Protective Life.
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your Great-West Life accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
