Have you named life insurance beneficiaries recently?

(The following article pertains only to the BellSouth Group Life Plan for retirees and active employees)

As you have read in recent correspondence, BellSouth changed the carrier for the BellSouth Group Life Plan from Aetna to Prudential as of January 2006.  With this change, any beneficiary designations you made prior to July 1, 2003 with Aetna were cancelled as of Feb. 28, 2006.  If you made any beneficiary designation since July 1, 2003, including designations made recently in response to other notices about the change in life insurance administrator, those designations remain valid and you do not need to take any action. The beneficiary designations cancelled on Feb. 28, 2006, include any beneficiary designations you made on paper forms, even if you have documentation -- such as an estate planning letter or copy of a beneficiary form -- listing a beneficiary designation made prior to July 1, 2003.

How to name beneficiaries

If you have not made or changed beneficiary designations since July 1, 2003, you may do so by logging on to Benefits@Your Fingertips Web site at https://bellsouthbenefits.com.  Click on the beneficiary update announcement and the link to Your Benefits Resources in the announcement.  On the “Health, Insurance…” page, click on “Change Your Beneficiaries” under the heading “Take Action.”  If you have made beneficiary designations  since July 1, 2003, you can verify them by going to this page as well.  Benefits@Your Fingertips is available 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday, and after 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on Sundays.

You also may call the BellSouth Benefits Service Center at 1-800-528-1232 and follow the prompts.  Benefit Service Center Representatives are available weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time.  You should have your beneficiary's Social Security number(s) and other personal information available to provide when calling the Benefits Center.  Please be aware that due to a high volume of calls, callers may have an extended wait time if they choose to update their beneficiaries through the telephone instead of through the Web site. 

What happens if you take no action?

If the service center has no beneficiary on file for you at the time of death, then any life insurance claims paid out for this plan after Feb. 28, 2006 will be paid according to plan rules and not according to designations you may have made prior to July 1, 2003.  Those rules state that if no beneficiary is on file with the service center, the death benefit will be paid to the following in this order:

• Your surviving spouse, if any;

• Your surviving children equally, if there is no surviving spouse;

• Your surviving parents equally, if there is no surviving spouse or child;

• Your surviving brothers or sisters equally, if there is no surviving spouse, child, or parent; or

• Your estate

If you had assigned your policy, note this exception:

If you had assigned your policy to another person, trust, or entity, that assignment has been passed on to Prudential and the designated beneficiary will be valid regardless of when it was designated.  When you assign your policy, you give up all your rights with regard to the policy to the assignee and only that assignee may make changes.  An assignee is not necessarily the beneficiary of the insurance proceeds.