How to Fill Out and Submit the Vanguard Beneficiary Designation Form

To name who inherits your Vanguard accounts, use the Vanguard beneficiary designation form that matches your account type: the IRA Beneficiary Designation Form for traditional, Roth, and SEP-IRAs, or the Transfer on Death (TOD) Plan Kit for nonretirement brokerage accounts. You can complete either one online through your account or submit a paper version by mail, which Vanguard processes in 5–7 business days after receipt.¹

Pick the Right Form for Your Account

The two forms serve different accounts and follow different rules, so starting with the wrong one wastes time.

The IRA Beneficiary Designation Form covers traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP-IRAs held at Vanguard. It lets you assign percentage shares to each beneficiary with a minimum of 1% per person, totaling 100%, and it offers a “My descendants” option that functions like a per stirpes designation. If one of your children dies before you, that child’s share passes to their own children rather than being redistributed among surviving beneficiaries.²

The Transfer on Death Plan Kit covers nonretirement brokerage accounts. It does not accept per stirpes language or group designations like “my descendants” or “children, per stirpes,” because of the difficulty Vanguard faces identifying group members after your death. If a named beneficiary dies before you, that person’s share is divided proportionately among your surviving beneficiaries.³ That default can produce results you didn’t intend. A grandchild could be cut out entirely if their parent, your beneficiary, dies first.

If you hold both an IRA and a taxable brokerage account at Vanguard, each needs its own form. Updating one does nothing to the other.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull together the following for every person or entity you plan to name.

For individuals, you need the full legal name, date of birth, and Social Security number. The IRA form asks for the last four digits of each beneficiary’s SSN; the TOD form requires the full number.²

For trusts, you need the trust’s full legal name and the date it was created. The trust must already exist; you cannot create one through the beneficiary form. For a testamentary trust created under your will, provide the trust name or the section of the will. No trust documentation is required at designation, but Vanguard will require it when assets are paid out.²⁴

For yourself, have your Vanguard account number, name as registered, date of birth, and the last four digits of your SSN or taxpayer ID.

One common mix-up: a trusted contact is not a beneficiary. Vanguard may ask you to designate a trusted contact, someone the firm can reach if it suspects fraud or has concerns about your capacity. That person has no access to your funds, no authority to transact, and no inheritance rights.

Update Beneficiaries Online

The fastest route is through Vanguard’s website. Log in, open your profile settings, and go to “Manage beneficiaries.”⁵ From there you can add or change primary and contingent beneficiaries, assign percentages, and e-sign the update. The change is recorded immediately.

The online process walks through each account separately. If you hold more than one Vanguard account, work through them one at a time rather than assuming a single update covers everything.

Submit the Paper Form

If you prefer paper, download the IRA Beneficiary Designation Form or the Transfer on Death Plan Kit from Vanguard’s forms and literature search page.

The IRA form has three sections. Section 1 captures your personal information. Section 2 lists primary beneficiaries, their percentage shares, and identifying information. Section 3 covers contingent beneficiaries, who inherit only if every primary beneficiary has died. Each percentage column must total exactly 100%.²

The TOD form requires each beneficiary to be named individually with their full SSN, date of birth, and relationship to you. You cannot designate groups or use per stirpes language on this form.³

Mail the completed form to:

Vanguard
P.O. Box 982901
El Paso, TX 79998-2901

For overnight delivery:

Vanguard
5951 Luckett Court, Suite A1
El Paso, TX 79932-1882³

Paper forms take 5–7 business days to process once received, and Vanguard mails a confirmation afterward.²¹ Check that the names, percentages, and account numbers on the confirmation match what you intended.

Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries

Primary beneficiaries are first in line. You can name one person who receives everything or split the account among several people by percentage.⁵ The IRA form sets a 1% minimum per beneficiary, and the total must equal 100%.²

Contingent beneficiaries inherit only if every primary beneficiary has already died. Skipping this tier is a common mistake. If all your primary beneficiaries predecease you and there is no contingent, the assets may default to your estate and go through probate, which is the outcome the form is meant to avoid.

Per Stirpes and Proportionate Distribution

The IRA form’s “My descendants” option keeps each family branch intact. If one of your children dies before you, that child’s share flows to their own children rather than disappearing into the surviving beneficiaries’ shares.⁷ If protecting specific branches of the family matters on a TOD account, one workaround is naming beneficiaries from each branch individually and updating the form whenever circumstances change.

Naming Trusts and Minor Children

Both forms let you name a trust. For an existing trust, provide its legal name and creation date. For a testamentary trust, provide the name or section of the will that establishes it. Vanguard does not require trust documentation at designation, but the trustee will need to produce it when claiming the assets.⁴

Naming a minor child directly is technically possible, but it creates a practical problem. Minors cannot legally take control of inherited assets, so a court may need to appoint a guardian to manage the funds until the child reaches adulthood. A custodial account under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act lets a custodian manage the assets until the child reaches the termination age set by state law.⁸ A trust for the child’s benefit is the other common route and gives you more control over when and how distributions are made.

Spousal Consent for Employer-Sponsored Plans

If you want to name someone other than your spouse as the primary beneficiary of an employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b), federal law requires written spousal consent. The consent must specifically acknowledge the effect of waiving the spouse’s right to the account, and it must be witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public.⁹ Section 401(a)(11) of the Internal Revenue Code sets the surviving spouse as the default beneficiary for these plans.¹⁰

IRAs are not subject to this federal spousal consent rule. In a community property state, however, your spouse may have a legal claim to half the IRA balance accumulated during the marriage. Those states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Changing an IRA beneficiary without spousal awareness in those states can lead to the designation being challenged after your death, so written consent is worth getting even though Vanguard’s IRA form does not require it.

Divorce Does Not Update the Form

Divorce does not automatically remove an ex-spouse from an employer-sponsored retirement plan’s beneficiary designation. Many states have laws that revoke a former spouse’s beneficiary status upon divorce, but the Supreme Court held in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff that federal ERISA law preempts those state statutes as applied to employer-sponsored plans.¹¹ The plan administrator must follow the designation on file, regardless of what a divorce decree says.¹²

The practical rule: if you divorce and don’t submit a new beneficiary designation, your ex-spouse inherits. For IRAs and nonretirement accounts, state automatic-revocation laws may apply because ERISA doesn’t govern them, but relying on that default is a gamble. Update those forms too.

When to Review What You’ve Named

Beneficiary designations are easy to set and easier to forget. Review after any major life event: marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or the death of a named beneficiary. The form on file controls where the account goes, not your will. Vanguard’s Transfer on Death plan agreement is explicit on this point: the firm follows the designations in its records regardless of any conflicting instructions in your will or other estate documents.³

1
Vanguard. Forms and Literature – Search Results
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Vanguard. IRA Beneficiary Designation Form
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Vanguard. Transfer on Death Plan Kit
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Vanguard. Transfer on Death (TOD) Plan
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Vanguard. What Is a Beneficiary? Types and How to Choose
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Vanguard. IRA Beneficiary Designation Form

The TOD form works differently. Vanguard does not accept per stirpes designations on nonretirement accounts, and a predeceased beneficiary’s share is split proportionately among the survivors.6Vanguard. Transfer on Death Plan Kit
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Vanguard. UGMA/UTMA Account: The Benefits of One
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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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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans
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Legal Information Institute. Egelhoff v Egelhoff
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1144 – Relation to Other Statutes