Does a post nuptial contract trump an IRA beni designation?
I have always heard you say that beneficiary rules no matter what. I have a situation where a third wife was 100% beneficiary on an IRA, her husband passed recently (December 23rd 2008). In April 2009 the husband’s whole estate was thrown up as contestable by the children of the 2nd marriage based on a post nuptial agreement acknowledged and signed by the deceased husband and the second wife in 1989. The wife passed in 1998. He remarried in 2004 and named his 3rd wife as 100% beneficiary. Are there any grounds for contestability because of the post nuptial contract that the deceased male had with his 2nd wife for their three children?
Permalink Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2009-06-26 21:43
I am interested to hear from the forum readers with a legal background, but having dealt with this somewhat:
If the husband clearly named his third wife as bene, I can not see this money going anywhere else…..Unless the courts get involved and they can have “carte blanche”. Many IRA custodians will include bene rules in their IRA contract. Generally, court orders will trump everything. The IRA custodian will rarely have a reason nor will to challenge this. So, in my humble opinion: the bene contract does not have to hold up.
pmk