A beneficiary is any person or organization who stands to benefit from the estate as specified in the last will and testament.
What you need to know
Beneficiaries are any person or organization who are eligible to receive something from an estate.
If someone dies intestate (without a will), then beneficiaries are determined by the state's intestate laws and usually apply the hierarchy known as next of kin.
Executors have a legal obligation to carry out someone's will or the relevant jurisdiction's intestate laws, and therefore they cannot take everything and must give beneficiaries what they are legally owed by the estate.
Beneficiaries can opt out of inheritances and in some cases must sign off on certain decisions made during the probate process.
Broadly speaking, a beneficiary is any person or organization who gets something from any financial instrument, whether that's a will, trust, or life insurance policy. If the documents say, "give this to this person", the person on the receiving end is the beneficiary. It's really that simple.
Beneficiaries are typically family members who receive money or property at the conclusion of the estate administration process. Other examples of beneficiaries include charitable or professional organizations that were close to the deceased.
When the deceased passes without a will (known as dying intestate) the courts in that jurisdiction will have a process for determining the order of distributing assets and who qualifies as an approved beneficiary. This hierarchy of who gets what and in what order is usually determined by the legal term known as next of kin.
As an executor, it is important to be transparent with beneficiaries to improve communication and reduce points of conflict.
A probate guide written for people who aren’t lawyers
Probate is notoriously confusing. Small estate affidavits, formal vs. simple administration, executors & executrixes— there’s more than enough jargon to make your head spin. We get it, and that’s why we made a probate guide that actually tells you what you need to know without assuming anything. You’ll walk away with a tangible timeline, actionable next steps and real clarity on what probate actually means for you and your family.
Nathan passed away a few months ago in Atlanta. He owned a private business, which he allocated to a trust, and also had a detailed will describing what assets would be given to his wife, his children, the business, and other close friends. In this case, anyone who was subject to receive a portion of Nathan's "estate", would be considered a beneficiary in the eyes of the law. So that includes his wife, children, business, and anyone else mentioned in the will.
In collaboration with
Nathan Phelps
Nathan is a Sr. Content Lead at Atticus and owner of Crafted Copy, a boutique copywriting and marketing shop based out of Nashville, TN. He has written hundreds of articles, white papers, and emails in industries like estate settlement, finance, and psychology, and his writing is read by millions of people across the internet each year.
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