How to name beneficiaries and fund a trust at Milliman
Covers 11 retirement accounts — beneficiaries can be managed online
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 for Milliman retirement retirement accounts revolves around beneficiary designations. These designations—not a will—control who receives the account balance at death. For IRAs and employer-sponsored plans, the beneficiary designation also determines the tax treatment of inherited distributions, making it a decision with both legal and financial implications.
Milliman has 11 product types, and the estate transfer rules differ across them. Some support beneficiary designations on tax-advantaged accounts, some can be retitled into a trust, and others will require probate if nothing is set up. Each is covered below.
- Name, relationship, date of birth, and percentage allocation for each
- For a trust: the trust's full legal name, the date it was established, and its tax identification number
Required Documents
- Trust name, date established, and tax ID (EIN or SSN)
Special Requirements
- A beneficiary designation on a retirement plan overrides a will — the plan pays the named beneficiary regardless of what the will says
- The employer's plan document, not Milliman, sets the rules; Milliman administers what the plan says
- ERISA-covered plans: a married participant's spouse is the default beneficiary, and naming anyone else as primary requires the spouse's written consent (often notarized or witnessed by a plan representative)
- Governmental 457(b) and 401(a) plans are outside ERISA, so the federal spousal-consent rule may not apply — the plan document and state law control instead
- Defined benefit and cash balance plans carry survivor-annuity rules on top of the designation: the payment form the retiree elected can determine that nothing survives them at all
- A trust can be named as beneficiary on any of these plans, but only a trust meeting the IRS see-through requirements preserves the beneficiaries' individual payout treatment
- Milliman publishes no generic beneficiary form — the form is plan-specific and comes from the Benefits Service Center or the employer's HR department
- Each Milliman-administered plan carries its own designation; updating the 401(k) does not update a paired pension or cash balance plan
Sources
Data sourced from Milliman primary sources (14 pages reviewed). How we research.
Download these Milliman instructions
Download instructions for the whole estateA printable PDF with the steps, required documents, and contact details — verified against Milliman primary sources. Bring it to the branch or keep it beside the phone.
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)
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