How to Complete and Submit the Wilcac Life Insurance Beneficiary Change Form

To change beneficiaries on a Wilcac life insurance policy, complete the Wilcac Life Insurance beneficiary change form issued by Wilton Re, sign it (with any spousal consent or witness signature your state requires), and return both pages to Wilton Re’s Norwalk, Connecticut office by mail or fax. Once processed, the new form replaces every prior beneficiary designation on the policy.¹

Where to Get the Form

The form is posted as a PDF on Wilton Re’s website at wrli.com.¹ You can also request a paper copy by phone. For policies formerly under Wilco Life Insurance Company (including Conseco, Philadelphia Life, and Massachusetts General), call 844-877-6907. For term, universal life, deferred annuity, or payout annuity policies formerly under Continental Assurance Company, call 866-880-3112.²

Wilton Re runs a self-service portal at myaccount.wrli.com, but there is no published confirmation that the portal accepts beneficiary change uploads. Plan on mail or fax unless a representative tells you otherwise.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Collect everything before you begin. Blank or incorrect fields are one of the top reasons the form comes back.

About you as the policy owner, the form asks for your policy number (from your original policy or an annual statement), your tax ID or Social Security number, and a daytime phone number.

For each beneficiary, primary and contingent, you’ll need:

Full legal name, with no nicknames or abbreviations
Relationship to the insured (spouse, child, trust, estate, and so on)
Mailing address
Social Security number or Tax ID
Date of birth, or date of trust if the beneficiary is a trust
Percentage share of the death benefit

Filling In Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries

The form has space for up to two primary and two contingent beneficiaries. Primary beneficiaries are paid first. Contingent beneficiaries receive proceeds only if every primary beneficiary has died before the claim is paid. If you need to list more than two in either category, attach a continuation sheet with the same information for each additional person.

Each category’s percentages must total exactly 100%. One primary beneficiary gets 100%. Two primaries might split 50/50, or 60/40, or any other combination, but the sum has to come out to 100 — not 99, not 101. The same rule applies separately to your contingents.¹

Per Stirpes or Per Capita

The form asks you to choose between per stirpes and per capita distribution. That choice decides what happens if a named beneficiary dies before you do.

Per stirpes means “by branch.” If you name three children equally and one dies before you, that child’s share passes to their own children rather than being redivided among your surviving children.³ Per capita means “by head.” If one of your beneficiaries dies first, the survivors split the entire benefit and the deceased beneficiary’s heirs get nothing. For families with children and grandchildren, per stirpes is the more common choice because it keeps each branch’s share intact.

Signatures Your State May Require

The form has signature lines that apply only in certain states. Skipping one that applies to you is the fastest way to get the form kicked back.

Spousal Consent in Community Property States

If you live in California, Idaho, Nevada, or Washington, your spouse has to sign and date the form, even if you’re naming your spouse as the beneficiary. The form also recommends a spousal signature in any other community property state. The full list is Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.¹ When premiums have been paid with marital funds, the policy is treated as a marital asset and a spouse cannot be cut out of the proceeds without written consent.

Massachusetts Witness

Massachusetts residents need a disinterested witness to sign the form. Disinterested means the witness is not named as a beneficiary, is over 18, and is not an insurance agent.¹ A neighbor, coworker, or friend not listed on the form is fine.

Notary

There is a notary field on the form, flagged “if required.” Whether you need it depends on your policy terms or state law. If you aren’t sure, call customer service before you submit. A notary stamp you didn’t need costs you a small fee. Submitting without one when it was required costs you weeks.

Naming a Minor

An insurer cannot pay a death benefit directly to a child. If you list a minor, the money is typically held by the insurer or paid into a court-supervised guardianship until the child reaches the age of majority, usually 18 or 21 depending on the state. That process takes time and money, and a judge, not you, decides who manages the funds.

Two alternatives sidestep this. You can name a custodian under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act on the form itself, written as something like “Jane Smith as custodian for Alex Smith under the [State] UTMA.” The custodian manages the money until the child hits the state’s UTMA age, at which point the full balance passes to the child with no restrictions. If you want more control, such as holding funds past the UTMA age or limiting how they can be spent, a trust is the better tool. Name the trust as beneficiary by its formal name and date, and use the “Date of Trust” field for that date.

Signing and Submitting

The policy owner has to sign and date the form. If someone other than the owner is the insured, that person may also need to sign depending on your policy terms. Both pages of the form must go back to Wilton Re.¹

Mail to:

Wilton Re
801 Main Avenue, 5th Floor
Norwalk, CT 06851⁴

Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested gives you a tracking number and proof the office received your paperwork. The general Wilton Re fax line is 203-762-4401.⁴ Before you fax, confirm with customer service that the line accepts beneficiary change forms for your policy type. Some policy groups have dedicated fax numbers printed on the instruction page.

After You Submit

Once Wilton Re processes the form, you should receive a written acknowledgment or policy endorsement confirming the new designations. Keep that with your original policy. If nothing arrives within a few weeks, call the number for your policy type and ask a representative to confirm the update went through.

A beneficiary change isn’t effective until the insurer actually receives and accepts the form. Dropping the envelope in the mail doesn’t finish the job. Until a valid form is processed, your prior designation stays in force, or no designation at all if this would have been your first.

Why Forms Get Rejected

Most rejections trace back to a handful of avoidable errors:

Missing owner signature, or a missing spousal consent or witness signature when the state requires one
Percentages that don’t total 100%, even by a single point
Missing beneficiary details such as Social Security number, date of birth, or address
Only the first page returned when both pages are required

If the form comes back, fix the problem and resubmit as soon as you can. Your old designation, or the policy’s default, controls everything in the meantime.

1
Wilton Re. Beneficiary Change Request
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Wilton Re. For Policyholders
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National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Life Insurance Beneficiaries – Per Capita vs. Per Stirpes
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Wilton Re. Contact Us