How to Fill Out and Submit the Charles Schwab Beneficiary Designation Form

The Charles Schwab beneficiary designation form names the people or entities who receive your account assets when you die, and it overrides your will for those accounts. Schwab uses two different forms depending on the account: a Designated Beneficiary Plan Agreement for brokerage and Investor Checking accounts, and a separate IRA beneficiary form for retirement accounts.¹² For most changes, you don’t need paper at all — the update can be done online in a few minutes.

Which Form You Need

For a Schwab One brokerage account, pledged account, or Investor Checking account, the correct form is the Designated Beneficiary Plan Agreement. Schwab calls it a “Designated Beneficiary Plan”; the securities industry calls the same arrangement Transfer on Death (TOD), and the banking industry calls it Payable on Death (POD).¹ For traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and other retirement accounts, use the separate IRA beneficiary form on Schwab’s Forms and Applications page.²

Not every brokerage account qualifies for the plan. Eligible registrations are Individual, Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship, and Community Property with Rights of Survivorship. Community Property without Rights of Survivorship is not eligible. The plan is also unavailable in Louisiana and for clients whose primary residence is outside the United States.¹

Updating Beneficiaries Online

If you already have online access, you can skip the paper form for most changes. Log in at Schwab.com, click the person icon in the upper-right corner, and select Beneficiaries from the dropdown. On the Beneficiaries tab, click Edit Account under the specific account you want to update. Each account has to be updated on its own; changes don’t apply across multiple accounts at once.

The tool walks you through primary beneficiaries, then contingent beneficiaries, then additional options such as per stirpes. After making your selections, you reach a Review and Consent screen, check the “I Agree” box, and submit. The change takes effect at that point. If you have several Schwab accounts, repeat the process for each one — a designation on your brokerage account does not carry over to your IRA.

Filling Out the Paper Form

If you prefer paper or need to establish a new Designated Beneficiary Plan, download the agreement from Schwab’s site.³ You can also request a copy through customer service or pick one up at a branch.

The form starts with your full legal name and Schwab account number. Get the account number exactly right; a transposed digit can delay processing or attach the designation to the wrong account. For each individual beneficiary, you need:

Full legal name
Social Security number or Tax Identification Number
Date of birth
Relationship to you (spouse, child, non-relative, and so on)⁴

If you name a trust, provide the trust’s full legal name, the date it was established, and the trustee’s contact information. For a charity or other organization, provide the entity’s legal name and Tax Identification Number.

Sign and date the form. Schwab does not require notarization or witnesses. If you live in a community property state and are not naming your spouse as the sole primary beneficiary, signing the form represents that your spouse has consented.¹

Primary vs. Contingent Beneficiaries

Every beneficiary you name is either primary or contingent. Primary beneficiaries are first in line. Contingent beneficiaries inherit only if all primary beneficiaries have died before you. If even one primary beneficiary is alive when you die, the contingent group receives nothing.

You can name multiple people in either category, and you assign each person a percentage. The percentages within each category must add up to exactly 100 percent, but the shares don’t have to be equal.⁴ Three children could receive 50 percent, 25 percent, and 25 percent, for example. A form where the percentages don’t total 100 will be rejected, so check the math before submitting.

Per Stirpes vs. Per Capita

The form asks how assets should flow if a named beneficiary dies before you do.

Per stirpes means a deceased beneficiary’s share passes down to their own children. If you name your two children as equal primary beneficiaries and one dies before you, that child’s 50 percent goes to their kids — your grandchildren — rather than shifting to your surviving child.⁴ The family branch stays intact.

Per capita means the deceased beneficiary’s share is redistributed among the surviving beneficiaries you named. In the same example, your surviving child would receive the entire account and nothing would pass to the deceased child’s descendants. Per stirpes is the more common choice for people with children, since it preserves each branch of the family.

Spousal Consent and Community Property

If Schwab holds a qualified employer-sponsored retirement plan for you, such as a 401(k), federal law gives your spouse significant protections. Under 26 U.S.C. § 417, your spouse must consent in writing before you can name anyone else as beneficiary of the plan. The consent must acknowledge the effect of the election and be witnessed by a plan representative or notary public.⁵ This applies regardless of your state of residence.

For non-retirement brokerage accounts, community property states add a separate layer. The Designated Beneficiary Plan Agreement requires you to confirm spousal consent if you live in a community property state and do not name your spouse as the sole primary beneficiary.¹ The community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Note again that Louisiana residents cannot use the plan at all.

Naming Minors, Trusts, and Individuals with Disabilities

You can name a minor child as beneficiary, but the child cannot legally receive or manage the assets until reaching the age of majority in their state. Without a trust or custodial arrangement in place, a court may need to appoint a guardian or custodian to manage the funds. Setting up a custodial account under your state’s Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) or naming a trust as the beneficiary gives you more control over who manages the money and when the child receives it.

If a beneficiary receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid, naming them directly can disqualify them from those benefits, because an inheritance counts as a resource. A properly drafted special needs trust allows the beneficiary to receive supplemental funds without losing government benefits, since the trust’s assets are not treated as the individual’s own resources.⁴ Name the trust, not the individual, on the Schwab form.

How to Submit the Form

Once the paper form is complete, there are four ways to get it to Schwab:

Upload online. Log in at Schwab.com, click the envelope icon for the Message Center, and select Upload Document.¹
Fax to 1-888-526-7252.
Visit a Schwab branch and hand it in.
Mail it to the address for your state (below).

If you live in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming, mail to:⁶

Standard mail: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., P.O. Box 982600, El Paso, TX 79998-2600
Overnight/FedEx/UPS: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., 1945 Northwestern Drive, El Paso, TX 79912-1108

If you live in any other state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory, mail to:

Standard mail: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., P.O. Box 2339, Omaha, NE 68103
Overnight/FedEx/UPS: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., 200 S 108th Ave., Omaha, NE 68154

The Message Center upload is the fastest route and creates an immediate electronic record. If you mail the form, use a tracked delivery method so you have proof it arrived.

After You Submit

Once Schwab processes your form or online submission, the updated beneficiary information appears in your account profile under the Beneficiaries tab. Log in and verify that the names, percentages, and distribution elections match what you intended. If something looks wrong, contact Schwab right away.

Review your designations after any major life event: marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or the death of a named beneficiary. The form on file — not your will — controls where these assets go.⁷ If no valid designation is on file when you die, the assets pass to your estate and go through probate, which is the outcome the form exists to avoid.⁸

1
Charles Schwab. Designated Beneficiary Plan Agreement
2
Charles Schwab. Forms and Applications
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Charles Schwab. Schwab Designated Beneficiary Plan Application
4
Charles Schwab. What Is a Beneficiary? Why Naming Them Is Key
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 417 – Definitions and Special Rules for Purposes of Minimum Survivor Annuity Requirements
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Charles Schwab. Client FAQs – Top Account Questions
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The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Pitfalls of Pay on Death Accounts
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Fidelity. What Is Probate and How Does It Work