How to Fill Out the American Funds Beneficiary Change Form

The American Funds beneficiary change form updates who inherits your Capital Group account when you die, and you can complete it either online at capitalgroup.com or on paper. For IRAs (Traditional, Roth, SIMPLE, and SEP), download the IRA Beneficiary Change form as a fillable PDF from the Capital Group IRA beneficiary support page, or call (800) 421-4225 to have one mailed to you.¹² For an employer-sponsored plan such as a 401(k), contact your plan administrator or call the same number to request the plan’s version of the form. One rule governs everything else on the page: submitting a new form wipes out every existing beneficiary on that account, so you have to list every primary and contingent beneficiary you want to keep, every time.

What to Gather Before You Start

Each account you want to update needs its own form. Before you fill anything in, collect this for every person, trust, or organization you plan to name:

Full legal name as it appears on government-issued ID, not a nickname.
Relationship to you (spouse, child, sibling, trust, charity).
Date of birth and Social Security number. Capital Group recommends including both so the correct person can be identified when the assets are distributed.¹
Current mailing address.
Your American Funds account number for each account being updated.

Leaving off the Social Security number will not stop the form from processing, but when your beneficiary eventually goes to claim the account, they may have to produce extra documentation to prove who they are. That delay lands on your family at the worst possible moment.

Filling In Your Information and the Account

Start with your own full legal name, account number, and Social Security number. This tells Capital Group which account the new designations apply to. If you own more than one American Funds account and want different beneficiaries on each, complete a separate form per account.

Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries

The form has two tiers. Primary beneficiaries inherit when you die. Contingent beneficiaries inherit only if every primary beneficiary has already died. You can name as many people in each tier as you want, but the percentage allocations within each tier must be whole numbers that add up to exactly 100%.¹

Because a new form replaces every existing designation, partial updates are not possible.¹ If you just want to add one contingent beneficiary, you still need to re-list every primary and contingent person you want to keep. Miss one name and that person loses their designation.

Per Stirpes

Writing “per stirpes” next to a beneficiary’s name means their share passes down to their own children if they die before you do. Name your daughter as a primary beneficiary per stirpes, and if she predeceases you, her children inherit her share. Without that designation, her share is redistributed among your remaining primary beneficiaries. Per stirpes keeps the form working through generational changes without you having to resubmit each time.

Naming Minors, Trusts, and Charities

Minor Children

You can name a minor as a beneficiary, but a child under 18 has no legal capacity to receive or manage inherited assets. If you name a minor outright and die while they are underage, a court will likely need to appoint a guardian of the estate to manage the money, which costs money and takes time.³

A cleaner approach is to name a custodian under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. The designation reads something like: “Amy Jones as custodian for Amos Jones under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act of [your state].” The custodian manages the account until the child reaches the age of majority (typically 18 or 21 depending on the state), with no court proceeding required.³

Trusts

To name a trust, use the trust’s full legal name and its taxpayer identification number in place of a Social Security number. After your death, the trustee generally has to give a copy of the trust document to the financial institution by October 31 of the year following the year of death so the institution can verify the trust’s beneficiaries and apply the correct distribution rules.⁴ Distributions are reported under the trust’s name and TIN on Form 1099-R.

Charities

For a charity, provide the organization’s full legal name, mailing address, and Employer Identification Number.

Spousal Consent

If the account is part of an employer-sponsored retirement plan governed by ERISA (most 401(k) and pension plans), federal law makes your spouse the default beneficiary. To name anyone else, your spouse has to sign a written waiver consenting to the alternate designation, and that consent must acknowledge the effect of the election and be witnessed by either a plan representative or a notary public.⁵

IRAs are not subject to that ERISA mandate. But if you live in a community property state, your spouse may still have a legal claim to assets accumulated during the marriage, and getting spousal consent on the IRA form is prudent even when Capital Group does not strictly require it. Skipping it can invite a legal challenge from a surviving spouse.

One more thing about spouses: divorce does not automatically remove a former spouse from an ERISA-governed retirement plan. The form on file controls, so if your decree says your ex should not receive the account but you never updated the form, the plan administrator is legally required to pay your ex. Filing a new beneficiary form should be one of the first financial tasks after a divorce is final. If the divorce settlement divides the account itself, a Qualified Domestic Relations Order handles that split, but you still need a new beneficiary form to say who inherits your remaining share going forward.

Signing Under a Power of Attorney

An agent acting under a power of attorney cannot change your beneficiaries unless the POA document expressly grants that authority. Many states treat beneficiary changes as a “hot power” under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, meaning a general grant of financial authority is not enough; the document must specifically say the agent may change beneficiary designations.⁶ Without that language, the change can be challenged and thrown out. Courts also scrutinize any beneficiary change made through a POA, especially when the agent names themselves.

Signature Authentication

A standard beneficiary change does not require a Medallion Signature Guarantee. Medallion guarantees apply to the sale or transfer of ownership of securities, not to administrative updates like changing a beneficiary.⁷ You sign the form. A notary is required only for the spousal consent waiver on an ERISA plan, not for the account holder’s signature on a basic beneficiary update.

Where to Submit the Form

Capital Group operates two regional service centers, and which one you use depends on your state of residence.⁸

Western and Midwestern states (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, NV, OH, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, WY, and international addresses):

Standard mail: American Funds Service Company, P.O. Box 6007, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6007
Overnight/courier: 12711 N. Meridian Street, Carmel, IN 46032-9181

Eastern and Southern states (AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, KS, LA, MA, MD, ME, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WV):

Standard mail: American Funds Service Company, P.O. Box 2280, Norfolk, VA 23501-2280
Overnight/courier: 5300 Robin Hood Rd., Norfolk, VA 23513-2430

For IRAs, you can skip the mail entirely by logging in at capitalgroup.com and going to the beneficiary section, which walks you through the same fields as the paper form.¹ If you mail a paper form, use a delivery method with tracking. A lost form means your old designations stay in force.

After You Submit

Processing typically takes a few business days once Capital Group receives and verifies the form. You will get a written confirmation at the address on file or through a secure message in your online account. Save it with your other estate-planning documents.

If the form is rejected for missing information, an illegible signature, or percentages that do not add up to 100%, you will get a notice explaining the problem. The corrected version must again list every beneficiary, not just the one flagged, because partial updates still are not allowed. Check your online account shortly after mailing so you catch any rejection notice early. Your next quarterly statement should also reflect the new designations.

1
Capital Group. IRA Beneficiaries
2
Capital Group. Contact Us
3
ACTEC Foundation. Planning for the Young Under SECURE – Minor Inherited IRA
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Ascensus. Trust Beneficiary Basics
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1055 – Requirement of Joint and Survivor Annuity and Preretirement Survivor Annuity
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Maynard Nexsen. New North Carolina Uniform Power of Attorney Act
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First Heritage Federal Credit Union. Medallion Signature Guarantees
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Capital Group. Contact Us – Connect With Capital Group