A beneficiary is a person or group that receives benefits, profits, or advantages from another.

A beneficiary is designated as the recipient of funds or other property under a will, trust, insurance policy, etc.

Your should have both a “primary” and “contingent” beneficiaries. The primary beneficiary gets the death benefits, but in case that entity can not be found, the contingent beneficiaries get the death benefits. If the primary or contingent beneficiaries can not be found, the death benefit will be paid to your estate. If death benefits go to your estate, probate proceedings could delay distributing the assets, and the cost of probate could diminish the amount available to your heirs. For this reason is will be important to identify your beneficiary with as much detail as possible, to include social security number along with legal name.