Remember When You Named Your 20 Year Old Girlfriend As a Beneficiary? He Didn’t Either.
9th June 2024
I came across an article on the Wall Street Journal with the title His Ex Is Getting His $1 Million Retirement Account. They Broke Up in 1989, and I immediately knew what this was about given it was in my estate planning wheelhouse.
In the 1980s, Jeffrey Rolison and Margaret Sjostedt dated. Now, nearly four decades after their breakup, Sjostedt might inherit his $1 million retirement account. This is because Rolison listed Sjostedt as the sole beneficiary of his workplace retirement account in 1987 and never updated it before his death in 2015.
Rolison’s brothers, who discovered Sjostedt’s claim weeks after his death, are contesting this in federal court against Procter & Gamble (P&G), Rolison’s former employer, to prevent Sjostedt, now Margaret Losinger, from receiving the funds. This case underscores the importance of beneficiary forms for retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and bank accounts, which can override wills even if filled out years ago.