Investment Beneficiary Update Form

Keeping your investment account beneficiaries up to date is one of the most important—yet often overlooked—aspects of financial planning. Whether you've experienced a life change like marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or simply want to review your existing designations, this Investment Beneficiary Update Form makes it straightforward to update primary and contingent beneficiaries, specify distribution percentages, and designate trust entities when needed.

Why beneficiary designations matter

Beneficiary designations on investment accounts typically override what's written in your will, which means keeping them current is essential to ensuring your assets pass to the intended individuals or entities. This form supports per stirpes distribution—where a deceased beneficiary's share passes to their descendants—and allows you to name contingent beneficiaries who inherit if your primary beneficiaries predecease you.

Built for financial advisors, investment firms, and account holders

This template is ideal for:

• Financial advisors and wealth managers helping clients review and update beneficiary information as part of annual reviews or following life events
• Investment firms and brokerage houses providing clients with a clear, compliant way to submit beneficiary changes
• Account holders who want to proactively manage their estate planning and ensure accurate records
• Trust and estate attorneys coordinating beneficiary updates alongside broader estate plans

What this form includes

The form captures all the details needed for a complete beneficiary update:

• Account holder information including full legal name, date of birth, contact details, and account numbers
• Primary beneficiary designations with full name, relationship, SSN/TIN, date of birth, contact information, and allocation percentage
• Per stirpes distribution options so beneficiaries' shares can pass to their descendants if they predecease the account holder
• Contingent beneficiary designations with the same detailed information and allocation control
• Trust entity designation for naming trusts as beneficiaries, including trust name, date of establishment, trustee information, and EIN
• Supporting documentation requests to ensure all changes are properly verified and processed

Streamline with Paperform and automate with Stepper

Using Paperform, you can embed this form on your client portal or website, ensuring a professional, on-brand experience. Conditional logic ensures that only relevant fields appear based on whether the account holder is designating individuals or trust entities, making the process simple and easy to follow.

Once a beneficiary update is submitted, you can use Stepper to automate your back-office workflow: send the submission to your CRM or portfolio management system, notify compliance teams for review, generate confirmation emails with a summary of changes, and trigger document collection workflows if additional verification is needed. This reduces manual data entry and ensures updates are processed quickly and accurately.

Secure, compliant, and ready to deploy

Financial information requires trust and security. Paperform is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers data encryption, secure storage, and access controls, so you can confidently collect sensitive beneficiary details. The form can also integrate with your existing systems via native integrations or Stepper workflows, keeping everything connected and audit-ready.

Whether you're a financial advisor managing dozens of clients or an investment firm looking to digitise beneficiary update processes, this template gives you a professional, compliant starting point that you can customise to match your brand and specific requirements.