The beneficiary designation overrides your will — so this decision deserves more thought than it usually gets. Primary beneficiaries receive the death benefit first; contingent (secondary) beneficiaries receive it if the primary is deceased. Common structures: spouse as primary, children as contingent (the default for most families); a trust as primary (the right answer for clients with minor children, blended families, special-needs dependents, or estate-planning concerns — payments to minors via trust avoid court-supervised guardianship of the funds); business entity or co-owner as primary (for buy-sell-funded or key-person policies); charity as a percentage beneficiary (for legacy giving). Two common mistakes to avoid: naming “my estate” as beneficiary (forces the death benefit through probate, exposes it to creditors, and delays payment by months), and forgetting to update beneficiaries after divorce, remarriage, death of a named beneficiary, or birth of additional children. We review beneficiary designations on every annual policy review.