How should I change the beneficiary on my life insurance policy?

Changing your beneficiary is not a hard task, or a hard goal to accomplish. In fact, it sounds harder than it really is. You'll need to contact your insurance company and follow its instructions for making a change of beneficiary.

I am sure that with proper instructions, it shouldn't be too hard. Beneficiary change requests must be in writing. It will probably be on a form that your insurer will provide.

In some cases, insurance companies make a physical change to your policy known as an endorsement. This change is highly unusual.

At times, changing your beneficiary might be a bit more difficult. If you have chosen an irreversible beneficiary, you are not permitted to make changes to this designation without getting the current beneficiary's consent first.

If your state is a community property state, then your spouse is to give his or her permission before you can name anyone else as your beneficiary.

Always make sure that you know if your state is a community property state before making any changes.

If divorce is the reason why you are altering your beneficiary, you have to make certain that you act in accordance with with the terms of your divorce decree.

Your settlement agreement might require for you to maintain life insurance coverage with your ex-spouse as your beneficiary. In this case, it is not illegal for you to make changes to your beneficiary.

You should also keep in mind the fact that if you designated your spouse as beneficiary, while you were still married, divorce does not change this.

Assuming that your divorce decree does not require you to maintain your ex-spouse as a beneficiary, you can still change the beneficiary on your insurance policy by requesting for your insurance company to make a legal change to your policy.

No matter what, you have to be clear on the fact that you can't change the beneficiary of your life insurance policy via your will. An alteration of beneficiary specified in your will does not take precedence over the beneficiary term of your life insurance policy.   

If you want to change the beneficiary on your life insurance, make sure that you contact your life insurance company and thoroughly find out how to do so. Changing your beneficiary is an important task, and making sure that it is done properly with your insurance agent's directions is probably a good idea.