The beneficiary designation counts, not what the family assumed

A life insurance policy states who receives the payout. That beneficiary designation prevails over what the family assumes, even if everyone has thought for years that the money would go to the partner. In the estate inventory you copy the clause as the policy or the insurer's letter sets it out. You do not paraphrase it towards the outcome the table finds comfortable. Name the beneficiary with the wording of the document: the partner, the children, the lender, or a person named by name. Add the policy number and the date of the document. If the document is missing, the line is a task: request the policy and the beneficiary designation. Do not fill in a name from memory.

A change to the beneficiary designation is made during life, and it belongs in the life file: which policy, which change, which date, and which proof that the insurer has confirmed the change. After the death you change nothing more in that clause. You only record what the policy said on the date of death, according to the document the insurer sends with it. A draft letter that was never sent, a wish in a note, or a sentence in a conversation is not a change. You may leave those documents as context with the life file, with the comment that they have not been confirmed. They do not appear as the beneficiary on the estate-inventory line.

Because the beneficiary designation can direct the money outside the estate, you book the payout separately until a notary has classified it. You do not put it straight away with the deceased's bank accounts. An heir who receives money as beneficiary does not automatically receive it as a share of the estate. You note that distinction in the explanation, without rounding it off legally. Status requested for as long as the insurer has not written. After that, status received, with the amount from the letter, and the classification still open until the notary gives that interpretation. Two fields remain: what the policy contained on the date of death, and what has now actually been paid out.

Ask the insurer not only for the amount, but also which version of the beneficiary designation applied on the date of death. A later print from a portal can show different wording from the policy that was issued at the time. Keep both if they differ, and put in the note which version the insurer marks as valid. That marking is the source. A family story about a phone call years ago gets no amount of its own. It may remain as a task: check whether a change request was received. A task without a figure is better here than a second payout that nobody can point to on paper.

Copying the beneficiary designation is not a valuation and not tax advice. Ervazo records the document and does not allocate the payout. The source of the amount and of the name is the insurer. Until that letter is there, the line stays empty on the figure. What the payout means for inheritance tax or for the forced share (legitieme portie), you do not calculate in this description. The Belastingdienst is the source for the tax treatment, and a notary for the classification. The software only keeps the source with the figure.