Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Re: [Another] Per stirpes and Vanguard question

From Vanguard's website for naming beneficiaries:

Family or friends

Choose an option

Individual by name
You can name anyone, whether it be a family member, friend, or someone else. We just need their name and date of birth.

Children (Descendants, per stirpes)
Your assets will be divided equally among all your children (stepchildren not included). If any of your children pass before you, their share will be divided equally among their children (also known as per stirpes).

With my Vanguard account, I tried to go through the process to duplicate what the OP wants to do. Apparently, there's no way to name an individual with a per stirpes designation, such as John Smith, per stirpes. The only choice that provides a per stirpes designation is to select Children (Descendants). What you get then is the designation Descendants, per stirpes. Translation is that this means inheritance would be equally divided between your sons, with per stirpes for each. That's not what you want. To name them individually, there's no apparent way to add the per stirpes designation.

As I mentioned upthread, I think one can. I just choose "Individual by name" and in the Name field put "John Smith, per stirpes" along with John Smith's date of birth.

There has been worry and concern about this approach, but I haven't read anyone yet who says it won't work. Someone mentioned Fidelity has a "per stirpes" checkbox for each individual. I personally can't see any difference between a "per stirpes checkbox (as Fidelity allows and nobody seems to think that won't work) and putting "John Smith, per stirpes" in the name field (as my family does at Vanguard).

Statistics: Posted by marcopolo — Wed Jun 19, 2024 1:06 am