§560:2-706 Life insurance; retirement plan; transfer-on-death registration; deceased beneficiary. (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:
"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, descendant of a grandparent, or stepchild of the decedent, the following shall apply:
(c) More than one substitute gift; which one takes. If, under subsection (b), substitute gifts are created and not superseded with respect to more than one beneficiary designation and the beneficiary designations are alternative beneficiary designations, one to the other, the determination of which of the substitute gifts takes effect is resolved as follows:
(d) Protection of payors.
(e) Protection of bona fide purchasers; personal liability of recipient.
(f) This section shall not apply to payable-on-death accounts established at a financial institution. The payment of payable-on-death accounts shall be governed by section 560:6-110. [L 1996, c 288, pt of §1; am L 2008, c 39, §1; am L 2023, c 158, §30]