New Process for Naming Your Beneficiaries
We’re pleased to announce a new online process for naming retirement and insurance plan beneficiaries is now available. Previously, each UC location maintained insurance beneficiary designations, and UCOP HR/Benefits maintained retirement plan designations. The process of centralizing designations allows you to easily access and manage your beneficiary designations and allows the University to expedite beneficiary payments. It is important that you review and update your beneficiary designations so that you are sure your designations are the way you want them to be. After 2006, for employees who have never used the new online or form process for naming beneficiaries, insurance benefits will be made according to the order of succession (spouse or domestic partner, child(ren), parents, siblings, estate).
Retirement
plan beneficiaries
The
new online process allows you to review your beneficiary designations
at any time, and to name or change your beneficiary as necessary
for retirement and savings plans.
Insurance
plan beneficiaries
UC
employees may also name or change their beneficiaries online for
all UC-sponsored life insurance programs including Basic and Supplemental
Life, Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D), Senior Management
Life, and Business Travel Insurance.
How
to designate beneficiaries
To
take advantage of this new process, select “Your Benefits
Online” on the right side of the At Your Service home page
(http://atyourservice.ucop.edu).
After you log on, you’ll find a link “View Your Beneficiaries”
under “Quick Links”, “Your Money” and “Your
Health & Welfare.”
A revised paper form is available for those who cannot use the online application. Forms are available from your Department Benefits Counselor or the Campus Benefits Office.
Designate
retirement and insurance beneficiaries using the new process
When
you go to “View Your Beneficiaries,” on the At your
Service website, you will see any primary beneficiaries that you
designated for the retirement plan. However, you will not see any
insurance beneficiaries or secondary retirement beneficiaries previously
designated. Please review your retirement beneficiary designations
for accuracy and designate insurance beneficiaries. By 2006, UC
plans to obsolete any beneficiary designations not submitted using
the new online application or new forms and to base beneficiary
payments on order of succession unless designations have been identified
through the new process.
Tips for using the application
- Do not use the "BACK" or "FORWARD" buttons on your browser to navigate.
- Completing
your designations:
- Step 1: On the At Your Service website, start by clicking on "Add Change Delete" from the navigation menu on the left to manage your beneficiaries. This is where you build your list of primary and secondary (contingent) beneficiaries. This is also where you provide information that will be used to locate your beneficiaries in the future. Complete this step before assigning percentage shares.
- Step 2: After your list of beneficiaries is complete, go to "Assign Shares". This is where you specify what percentage your primary and secondary (contingent) beneficiaries may receive for each plan. The initial page allows you to quickly assign the same percentages and beneficiaries across all your plans. If you want to specify different percentages or beneficiaries for your plans, click on the "Assign by Plan" option at the bottom of the page. You must assign shares even if you only have one beneficiary.
- Step
3: To save your change, you must go to "Review &
Confirm" and click on the "Confirm" button.
You will receive a confirmation number.
- Click on "Help" above for detailed assistance.
- Click
"Logoff" to exit Your Benefits Online, or click
on a tab or "Main Menu" to exit Beneficiary
Designations.
If you need assistance using the application, see your Department Benefits Counselor or contact the Campus Benefits Office (642-7053 or benefits@uclink.berkeley.edu).
Review
your beneficiaries regularly
Please
remember to review your designations periodically and to change
your designations if you’ve had a major life event –
marriage, divorce, birth of a child, or a death.