Examiner.com:  Deciding whom to designate as a beneficiary for your IRA might seem like an easy decision—you probably want your money to go to someone near and dear to you. But is the person (or people) you’re thinking of actually named as the beneficiary on the particular IRA you opened all those years ago?

To be certain, it’s wise to review your beneficiary designation form every few years, or whenever you’ve had a change in circumstances, such as a birth of a child or grandchild or change in marital status. Changing your beneficiary is easy—you simply complete a new beneficiary designation form. Keep in mind that a will or trust does not override this form, or the IRA document itself (which may have “default” beneficiary designations that control even if no beneficiary designation is on file), unless you name your estate or trust as your beneficiary. Because beneficiary designations are important estate-planning documents, you may want to review them with your attorney.

Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog:  Even if an individual creates a well drafted will, he or she may unintentionally disinherit intended beneficiaries from large portions of his or her estate by failing to take proper steps regarding non-probate assets.

One such asset is a 401(k) plan. A surviving spouse is automatically entitled to the entire account, regardless of what a will states. If an individual wants the account to pass to someone other than his or her spouse, the spouse must file a written statement waiving his or her rights to the account. Additionally, a prenuptial agreement will not resolve this issue because, until a person is actually married, he or she cannot give up his or her spousal rights to a 401(k).

Smart Money:  With the current $5 million federal estate tax exemption, you may not be thinking much about estate planning.  After all, there's no way your estate would owe the tax if you happen to die between now and 2013.  So no worries, right?  Wrong.

In fact, there's an important estate planning move you should probably make as soon as you finish reading this: check the beneficiary designations for your bank accounts, brokerage firm accounts, tax-favored retirement accounts, company benefit plans, life insurance policies, annuities and 529 college accounts.  If you haven't yet turned in the forms to designate beneficiaries, do it now.  If your forms are out of date, change them. It's amazing how often folks fail to take these simple steps, and the consequences of slacking off can be dire. Need a couple horror stories for motivation?  Here you go.