N.J. Admin. Code § 17:6-8.1

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 23, December 2, 2024

Section 17:6-8.1 - Beneficiary designation

(a) At any time before his or her death, a participant may designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries, subject to the terms of the Retirement Plan and such rules as may be established by the Plan Administrator. The participant will have the right to change his or her beneficiary designation at any time, subject to the terms of the Retirement Plan and such rules as may be established by the Plan Administrator. After the participant's death, no person will have any right or power to designate a beneficiary or change any beneficiary (except a beneficiary's disclaimer of his, her, or its benefit as permitted by 17:6-14.1 0). Any attempt to state such a provision in a beneficiary designation or otherwise is void.

(b) A beneficiary designation must be on the applicable form. A beneficiary designation is not effective until the Plan Administrator (or its designee for this purpose) accepts it. Each beneficiary designation completely revokes and cancels any and every previous beneficiary designation.

1. A participant must designate each beneficiary by name. A participant cannot designate a beneficiary by relationship or by class, and any such attempted beneficiary designation is void. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, if the Plan Administrator finds that a beneficiary designation sufficiently describes a trust, the Plan Administrator may construe the beneficiary designation as naming the duly appointed and currently acting trustee of that trust. Likewise, if the Plan Administrator finds that a beneficiary designation sufficiently describes an estate, the Plan Administrator may construe the beneficiary designation as naming the duly appointed and currently acting personal representative of that estate.

i. Any statement in a beneficiary designation attempting to state or create a condition or restriction on the beneficiary's receipt or enjoyment of any benefit is invalid and the beneficiary is entitled to the benefit without regard to any attempted condition or restriction.

ii. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any beneficiary designation in the participation agreement or any other document or otherwise (including any court order), any designation of a beneficiary cannot be irrevocable and any such designation will be construed as a revocable designation of that beneficiary.

2. If the participant designates as beneficiary more than one person, all persons of the same beneficiary designation (primary or contingent) have equal shares, unless the participant specifies otherwise. "Per stirpes" designations are not allowed.

i. If a beneficiary designation divides a benefit between or among two or more beneficiaries, the primary beneficiary designation must allocate the share of each such beneficiary solely by specifying a percentage of the participant's account and the contingent beneficiary designation must allocate the share of each such beneficiary solely by specifying a percentage of the participant's account. Without limiting the comprehensive effect of the preceding sentence, any division of any benefit under a beneficiary designation will be ineffective to the extent that it would ask the Plan Administrator to consider any fact other than the amount of the participant's account.

3. Any common-law doctrine or construction or interpretation principle of substantial compliance with the rules for making a beneficiary designation or nomination (or under the law of contracts generally) will not apply to the Program.

N.J. Admin. Code § 17:6-8.1