HRS § 560:2-706 Life Insurance; Retirement Plan; Transfer-On-Death Registration; Deceased Beneficiary

• Library: Hawaii Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through 2023 Legislative Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: HRS § 560:2-706

(a) Definitions. In this section:

"Alternative beneficiary designation" means a beneficiary designation that is expressly created by the governing instrument and, under the terms of the governing instrument, can take effect instead of another beneficiary designation on the happening of one or more events, including survival of the decedent or failure to survive the decedent, whether an event is expressed in condition-precedent, condition-subsequent, or any other form.

"Beneficiary" means the beneficiary of a beneficiary designation under which the beneficiary must survive the decedent and includes:

(1) A class member if the beneficiary designation is in the form of a class gift; and

(2) An individual or class member who was deceased at the time the beneficiary designation was executed as well as an individual or class member who was then living but who failed to survive the decedent, but excludes a joint tenant of a joint tenancy with the right of survivorship and a party to a joint and survivorship account.

"Beneficiary designation" includes an alternative beneficiary designation and a beneficiary designation in the form of a class gift.

"Class member" includes an individual who fails to survive the decedent but who would have taken under a beneficiary designation in the form of a class gift had the individual survived the decedent.

"Stepchild" means a child of the decedent's surviving, deceased, or former spouse, and not of the decedent.

"Surviving beneficiary" or "surviving descendant" means a beneficiary or a descendant who neither predeceased the decedent nor is deemed to have predeceased the decedent under section 560:2-702.

(b) Substitute gift. If a beneficiary fails to survive the decedent and is a grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent, or a stepchild of the decedent, the following apply:

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (4), if the beneficiary designation is not in the form of a class gift and the deceased beneficiary leaves surviving descendants, a substitute gift is created in the beneficiary's surviving descendants. They take by representation the property to which the beneficiary would have been entitled had the beneficiary survived the decedent;

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (4), if the beneficiary designation is in the form of a class gift, other than a beneficiary designation to "issue", "descendants", "heirs of the body", "heirs", "next of kin", "relatives", or "family", or a class described by language of similar import, a substitute gift is created in the surviving descendants of any deceased beneficiary. The property to which the beneficiaries would have been entitled had all of them survived the decedent passes to the surviving beneficiaries and the surviving descendants of the deceased beneficiaries. Each surviving beneficiary takes the share to which the surviving beneficiary would have been entitled had the deceased beneficiaries survived the decedent. Each deceased beneficiary's surviving descendants who are substituted for the deceased beneficiary take by representation the share to which the deceased beneficiary would have been entitled had the deceased beneficiary survived the decedent. For the purposes of this paragraph, "deceased beneficiary" means a class member who failed to survive the decedent and left one or more surviving descendants;