Estate planning at Milliman
How to protect 11 Milliman accounts — manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust online, and file death claims
Milliman Benefits Service Center
Corporate headquarters (not a claims or forms address): Milliman, Inc., 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3800, Seattle, WA 98101-2646
Milliman Benefits Service Center
Corporate headquarters (not a claims or forms address): Milliman, Inc., 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3800, Seattle, WA 98101-2646
Milliman Benefits Service Center (death claims run through the same line; no branches, no separate bereavement line, no public claim form or claims address)
Milliman is a retirement provider managing 11 retirement retirement accounts. These tax-advantaged accounts transfer by beneficiary designation—not by will—making it critical to keep designations current and aligned with broader estate planning goals.
Milliman lets account holders update beneficiary designations online, by mail, and by phone, typically taking 10-15 minutes on the portal. Trust funding is also available, allowing families to name a trust as the beneficiary of retirement accounts.
Milliman 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 11 account types at Milliman.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
5-step process, 7 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
A trust can be named as beneficiary; the plan cannot be moved into a trust. Retitling a 401(k), 403(b), or pension into a trust during the participant's lifetime is not a thing that exists — the account is an ERISA plan account held for the participant, and pulling it into a trust would be a taxable distribution rather than a retitling. Naming the trust as beneficiary is done on the millimanbenefits.com portal or on the plan's paper form, using the trust's full legal name, the date it was established, and its tax identification number. Two cautions. First, only a trust meeting the IRS see-through requirements preserves the underlying individuals' payout treatment; a trust that does not qualify accelerates the payout and taxes it at the trust's compressed rates. Milliman administers the plan and does not review whether your trust qualifies. Second, if the participant is married and the plan is ERISA-covered, naming a trust instead of the spouse still requires the spouse's written consent. Whether a particular plan will even accept a trust on the portal, or requires the paper form plus a Certification of Trust, is set by the employer's plan document — ask the Benefits Service Center at 866-767-1212. Consult a licensed attorney for trust structure questions.
Sources
Data sourced from Milliman primary sources (14 pages reviewed). How we research.
Milliman Benefits Service Center
Corporate headquarters (not a claims or forms address): Milliman, Inc., 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3800, Seattle, WA 98101-2646
Milliman Benefits Service Center
Corporate headquarters (not a claims or forms address): Milliman, Inc., 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3800, Seattle, WA 98101-2646
Milliman Benefits Service Center (death claims run through the same line; no branches, no separate bereavement line, no public claim form or claims address)
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your Milliman accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
