One little-known election on your retirement accounts, the choice of per stirpes vs. per capita, could even send your retirement money to the wrong beneficiary or cut someone you love out of ...

When naming the kids as beneficiaries, you can choose to designate their shares to be split “per stirpes” or “per capita.” Per stirpes is Latin for “by the branch.” If one of the kids ...

This is called a per stirpes distribution. That means that each branch of the family will receive an equal share. If that’s what you want to do, you must request per stripes, because equal ...