Designate a beneficiary
“Test the oldest generation first” is the standard advice everyone — The Legal Genealogist included — gives when it comes to DNA testing.
It only makes sense, particularly in the context of autosomal DNA testing, when every generation is impacted by what’s called recombination: the random jumbling of genes that occurs before half (and only half) of those randomly-jumbled pieces gets passed on by each parent to the next generation.1
But the very fact that we are testing the oldest members of our families creates a problem — one greatly exacerbated recently by the decision of AncestryDNA to require every person tested to have his or her own AncestryDNA account.2
That problem: how do we plan for the future, and for access to those results, when the inevitable happens and we lose those oldest members of our families?
In other words, how do we do estate planning for our DNA results, the way we do when we sit down and write wills for our other property and effects?
There’s no question but that the vast majority of those who test want their results to be available and accessible forever to their family members and especially to the family genealogists who’ve often cajoled them into testing and even paid for the tests. So how do we make sure this is done?
This isn’t a new problem, and I’ve written about it before.3 But it’s still a problem that only one DNA company has addressed — and that all companies and all DNA testers need to address. And, because there are no guarantees in life, it’s something we as testers have to address right now.
Only Family Tree DNA has tackled the question of making sure that each person who tests can say what should happen with access to his or her account into the future, by allowing each person who tests to choose and specifically identify a beneficiary for our DNA samples and results. The solution there is a fill-in-the-blanks system, backed up by a printed form to be signed and notarized and put with our other legal effects.
While I’d prefer an all-digital system, it’s at least a system in place, and I can’t recommend strongly enough that (a) every DNA testing company (are you listening, AncestryDNA? 23andMe? MyHeritageDNA? LivingDNA?) create a simple online system to allow testers to indicate their estate plan for DNA samples and results and (b) every person tested use whatever system exists to say what they want done to guarantee future access according to that plan.
Since I’ve tested with Family Tree DNA, by simply filling in a few bits of information, and getting one piece of paper properly notarized, I can set things up so that someone I choose can be:
the sole beneficiary to (my test kit), my Stored DNA, DNA Results, and Family Tree DNA account, to do all things required. For that purpose my beneficiary may execute and deliver, or amend, correct, replace all documents, forms, consents or release, tests and upgrades, and may do all lawful acts which may continue my involvement with FamilyTreeDNA.com.4
If you’re also a Family Tree DNA customer, here’s how to do it. First, log in to your Family Tree DNA test results and, on the dashboard page, look for this link to Manage Personal Information:
Click on that link, and you’ll go to this page with these tabs, and note the one highlighted at the right:
Click on the tab for Beneficiary Information and this is what you’ll see:
And when you fill out those boxes and click save, it will offer you the chance — highlighted here — to go to a printable form, already filled out with the information you entered in the boxes.
That form needs to be notarized. I keep a copy with my will. I’ve sent a copy to the person I’ve chosen to be executor of my estate.
And, because none of the other companies offers the same easy system, here’s one thing more you can do, something I have done:
I’ve taken the Family Tree DNA form, and changed the language, replacing all the references to Family Tree DNA with each of the other company names, and all the references to my kit number and the like with appropriate information about my test results from the other companies. And I’ve given my beneficiary the legal authority to continue to access my results and accounts at those other companies if something happens to me. I keep those with my will as well.
Now I can’t guarantee the other companies will honor that authority, because they haven’t been as forward-thinking as Family Tree DNA is about this issue. But it’s one thing I can do — along with specifically mentioning my DNA results in my will — until and unless the other companies do set something up on their own.
Because if something does happen to me, it may well be more important to my extended family to have my genetic legacy than any other legacy I might possibly leave them.
I’m doing everything I can, with Family Tree DNA’s help, to ensure that that legacy does get passed on, by doing estate planning for my DNA.
How about you? What’s your estate plan for your DNA?
SOURCES
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Recombination,” rev. 21 Feb 2017. ↩
- See Anna Swayne, “Enhancing Collaboration and Roles on DNA Results,” Ancestry blog, posted 13 July 2017 (https://blogs.ancestry.com/ : accessed 20 Aug 2017). ↩
- Judy G. Russell, “DNA ownership,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 14 Sep 2014 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 20 Aug 2017). ↩
- Family Tree DNA beneficiary designation printed form, Family Tree DNA (https://www.familytreedna.com/ : accessed 20 Aug 2017). ↩
I have at FTDNA-and Ancestry refuses to answer my question about this same thing. My grandmother tested for me in 2014 passed away 2015. Now who is the owner of her test not me! And of course it can’t be her. I asked twice with no response. No more test buying from them.
The owner of the test is her estate. As a genealogist you can determine who is the proper legal representative, and have that proper legal representative do the designation to you (or someone else).
Thank you Judy!
Thanks Judy for reminding us all how important this is. Some years ago I received an Account Management Designee Form from 23andMe.
You can see it here: http://dnaadoption.com/uploads/DNAadoption/Account_Management_Designee_Form.pdf.
And download a Word doc to complete here: http://dnaadoption.com/uploads/DNAadoption/Account_Management_Designee_Form.doc.
Karin Corbeil
Excellent, Karin, and thank you!
It took several weeks to get a response from 23andMe regarding setting up a beneficiary for a DNA account at 23andMe. Basically they do NOT have a process in place to add a beneficiary to an account for a living individual. Below is their full response:
Hello Karin,
Your request (#1141298) has been updated. You can view the update below.
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Hugh, Sep 21, 11:28 AM PDT:
Hello Karin,
Thank you for your reply. We currently do not have a process by which you can establish a beneficiary to an account. While you are welcome to share account access – by way of your account credentials – at your discretion, it is incumbent on you to share personal information and account access only with people you know and trust.
In the event you do not submit an Account Management Designee form before you were to pass away, we will need to be contacted by an Executor, Personal Representative or Beneficiary of your estate to assist them in accessing your information.
I hope this helped to clarify.
Best regards,
Hugh
The 23andMe Team
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Karin Corbeil, Sep 21, 6:04 AM PDT:
If the Account Management Designee form is not intended for adding a beneficiary to an account for a living person, how does one do that?
Karin Corbeil
—————————————————————–Hugh, Sep 19, 4:25 PM PDT:
Hello Karin,
Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your request. The form previously provided is intended to transfer ownership of an existing 23andMe account by changing the email address associated with the account.
We need to confirm the account holders identity and receive their consent to this arrangement.
For this reason, this form is not intended to, or appropriate for, grant access to a deceased individual’s account. We can release the genetic information of a deceased individual to an Executor, Personal Representative or Beneficiary of the deceased’s estate. We have specific, unique authorization forms in this case.
You may submit an Account Management Designee Form in the future if you are interested in allowing another individual to manage your account. However, in the event you pass away we require different authorization forms and legal documents. The Executor, Personal Representative or Beneficiary of the deceased’s estate will need to contact us to request such forms.
I have attached an electronic copy of our Account Management Designee form to this email for your convenience.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Hugh
The 23andMe Team
Attachment(s)
Account Management Designee Form..pdf
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Hugh, Sep 1, 11:15 AM PDT:
Hello Karin,
Thank you for contacting the 23andMe Team. After reviewing your previous correspondence I was able to locate an email dated December 19, 2012 in which you were provided a copy of our Account Management Designee Form. As it is possible our policies and the intended use of this form have changed since your original correspondence in 2012, I will need to follow up with you after discussing this matter with out Legal Team. I will follow up with you once I have additional information.
If you have any additional questions in the meantime, please feel free to reply directly to this email.
Best regards,
Hugh
The 23andMe Team
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Karin Corbeil, Aug 21, 3:18 AM PDT:
Some years ago I received an Account Management Designee Form to name a beneficiary on my 23andMe account. Do you have an updated document? Would you please attach and send to me?
Thank you.
Karin Corbeil
Which is why it’s important to create, execute and share a form of our own so that our executors, personal representatives or beneficiaries have the evidence they need when the time comes.
But what happens if the owner doesn’t leave written instructions? I was executor of my aunt’s estate. She died shortly before autosomal DNA testing was available, but had she owned a test and not written a specific provision in her will, the kit would have become a part of her residual estate. I distributed the residue to 21 individuals, with shares ranging from 1.25% to 20%. How do the testing companies propose to deal with a situation such as that? I can’t divide her kit into 21 parts and parcel them out. Would I have needed to notify the testing company of the names and contact information of the 21 new owners of the single kit? Would I have auctioned off the kit, sold it to the highest bidder, and distributed the proceeds? So long as the companies insist that a person may not give away a kit during his/her lifetime, they will be dealing with a wide range of probate laws that vary from state to state. They insist that the person who contributed the sample “owns” the kit. Yet ownership of anything implies the right to give, sell, or otherwise transfer that ownership to another person or persons. If a testing company refuses to recognize an owner’s right to transfer his/her ownership to another person or entity during life, how can they call it “ownership”? This is insanity.
This is one reason why it’s so important to address this in your lifetime (and whether the company provides a mechanism to do it or not, you can write your own assignment of ownership), and to get it addressed in the estate plan. After the fact it’s much harder.
As a project admin of several projects, I’m the beneficiary on numerous accounts because there was no other interested party. What would be better is if people could designate “the current xxxx project admin” to be the beneficiary as I’m not exactly a spring chicken either. Has anyone asked FTDNA about this?
There is nothing to prevent anyone from designating a project administrator by title, rather than an individual by name (and I think it’s a good idea).
There is another aspect to this, and that is people (cousins) who have agreed to DNA test at my request. I have made up a simple form, which both they and I sign, stating that they allow me to access their results, that the permission is revocable at any time, and it refers to the Genetic Genealogy Standards and states that I will abide by them. There is also space to add additional provisions (e.g., permission to upload results to GedMatch). This gives me written permission to manage their results while they are still living. Since I started doing this, I feel much more comfortable having this written permission on file.
And yet another aspect, hinted at by Jane, above – even the beneficiary needs to make plans. I agree that everyone should designate a beneficiary, as you recommend, Judy. It is also a good idea to think one step ahead, and make sure your beneficiary has the power to designate, in turn. (I haven’t got a form or a plan for that yet, but I am thinking about it.)
Thanks for a thought-provoking blog post!
Either have the beneficiary have the power to, in turn, designate a successor or name a beneficiary by title (“the administrator of the XX project”) rather than by name.
Thank you, Judy! The idea of amending the FTDNA form for each of the other companies is an excellent idea, which I plan to adopt. Let’s hope that their legal departments will honor them, or better yet, as you suggest, create one of their own that will offer us more assurance that our wishes will be respected after we are gone. This wasn’t an issue when I wrote my will, but I have confidence that my executors will do whatever is necessary when the time comes. I’ll formalize that the next time I update my will. I hope the DNA testing companies are paying attention and will take the appropriate action to alleviate our concerns. Keep us posted about any new developments. (I know you will!)
Thanks Judy, I had already filled in my beneficiary information after a talk I heard from a FTDNA person a while ago. However, I hadn’t been aware that I also needed to print a form and get it notarised. Thanks for that message too.
Sharyn
My daughter has access and management rights to my DNA test results, both at FTDNA and at GEDMATCH, and I have designated another daughter as the executor of my estate. But you’ve made me realize that that may not be enough once I pass on. I need to make clear my intent. The notorized form is a good idea, both to clarify their respective roles, and to serve as a reminder that this is one of the things that will need to be done after my death. In a time of stress, the easier we make it for our families to do things, the better.
How would the paperwork for 23andme work? Especially for the administrator of an estate?
Personally, I would prepare the paperwork and keep it against the day I needed it. But I would have it ready in case I ever needed to use it.
I am struggling to identify a beneficiary for my results and decades of research. I don’t have children, no one else in my family is interested in doing research and I don’t have confidence that my research won’t end up in the the local landfill when I’m gone.
As the family history person everyone goes to when they want info or help, I worry that others in similar situations may make me their beneficiary and I will end up with even more records to worry about.
Currently my plan is my state historical society or a university or college in the area where my family is from originally. I especially worry about the family pictures.
What do I do now with my DNA research? Do I make the beneficiary the the same as the rest of my research?
I’m sure that I’m not the only one with a similar conundrum?
For now, yes, because there’s no better overall solution, I would make the beneficiary the same. Looking into this issue, though, so stay tuned…
Fingers crossed. I figured there were others like me in that same situation.
Thanks! My life is a little crazy with a full-time job, two small businesses and possibly a third. Plus my research and trying to make sure my parents have things in place for their estate planning. I’m trying to get everything organized and a plan in place for my estate. The genealogy and DNA related stuff has been troublesome.