How to designate beneficiaries at Great-West Life

Empower retirement plan accounts (401(k), 403(b) and 457(b)) cannot be retitled into a revocable living trust. Naming the trust as primary or contingent beneficiary on each account is the way to route them through the trust.¹

Beneficiary recordkeeping is not active on every plan. Where it is not, the plan administrator or a designated third party, not Empower, holds the beneficiary designations.²

Empower IRAs cannot be retitled into a revocable living trust; the trust is named as primary or contingent beneficiary instead.¹

In-plan annuity contracts (SecureFoundation II, Smart Track and general-account fixed) cannot be retitled into a revocable living trust; the trust is named as primary or contingent beneficiary instead.¹

Any individual may be named as primary or contingent beneficiary.²

A trust may be named as primary or contingent beneficiary.²

No copy of the trust agreement is required to name a trust as beneficiary; trust documents are requested only at the death claim.¹

A charity may be named as primary or contingent beneficiary.²

The estate may be named as primary or contingent beneficiary.²

Primary and contingent beneficiaries can be named, with an allocation percentage for each when there are several.¹

Married participants are generally required to name the spouse as primary beneficiary under the plan. Naming anyone else needs the spouse's written consent, which Empower verifies; the plan document sets whether it must be witnessed or notarized.²

If the plan offers a qualified joint and survivor annuity, additional QPSA notice and waiver requirements may apply to a beneficiary change. The plan administrator, not Empower, produces and distributes the QPSA notices.²

A mailed form needs a handwritten signature; electronic signatures are not accepted and will cause processing delays.³

For employer retirement plans. Completed by the participant, signed by hand. Sent by the institution on request.³

Return to

A new designation supersedes all prior designations once Empower receives it in good order.²

At death, the successor trustee presents the trust agreement and trustee certification to Empower Beneficiary Support Services to claim the funds.¹

Empower can take up to a year to receive the trust paperwork before the plan administrator has to resolve the designation another way.¹

Legacy Great-West non-qualified individual annuities, reinsured to Protective on June 1, 2019¹

Legacy Great-West contracts reinsured to Protective on June 1, 2019, on its life line¹