Beneficiary

The person or entity named to receive an account or policy when the owner dies.

A named beneficiary on a retirement account, life insurance policy or payable-on-death account inherits it directly, usually bypassing the probate process and — importantly — overriding whatever a will says. Forms are often filled in once and never revisited, which is how ex-spouses end up inheriting decades later.

He updated the beneficiary on his retirement account after the divorce, since the form overrode his will.