Virginia Code 64.2-2610: Delivery or filing
A. In this section, “beneficiary designation” means an instrument, other than an instrument creating a trust, naming the beneficiary of (i) an annuity or insurance policy; (ii) an account with a designation for payment on death; (iii) a security registered in beneficiary form; (iv) a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or other employment-related benefit plan; or (v) any other nonprobate transfer at death.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 64.2-2610
- Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Disclaimed interest: means the interest that would have passed to the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Disclaimer: means the refusal to accept an interest in or power over property. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Fiduciary: means a personal representative, trustee, agent acting under a power of attorney, or other person authorized to act as a fiduciary with respect to the property of another person. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- Jointly held property: means property held in the name of two or more persons under an arrangement in which all holders have concurrent interests and under which the last surviving holder is entitled to the whole of the property and includes, without limitation, property held as tenants by the entirety. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
- Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
- Trust: means (i) an express trust, charitable or noncharitable, with additions thereto, whenever and however created; and (ii) a trust created pursuant to a statute, judgment, or decree, that requires the trust to be administered in the manner of an express trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-2600
- Trustee: means a trustee under a probated will or an inter vivos trust instrument. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
B. Subject to subsections C through L, delivery of a disclaimer may be effected by personal delivery, first-class mail, or any other method likely to result in its receipt.
C. In the case of an interest created under the law of intestate succession or an interest created by will, other than an interest in a testamentary trust, (i) a disclaimer shall be delivered to the personal representative of the decedent‘s estate or (ii) if no personal representative is then serving, it shall be filed with a court having jurisdiction to appoint the personal representative.
D. In the case of an interest in a testamentary trust, (i) a disclaimer shall be delivered to the trustee then serving or, if no trustee is then serving, to the personal representative of the decedent’s estate or (ii) if no personal representative is then serving, it shall be filed with a court having jurisdiction to enforce the trust.
E. In the case of an interest in an inter vivos trust, (i) a disclaimer shall be delivered to the trustee then serving; (ii) if no trustee is then serving, it shall be filed with a court having jurisdiction to enforce the trust; or (iii) if the disclaimer is made before the time the instrument creating the trust becomes irrevocable, it shall be delivered to the settlor of a revocable trust or the transferor of the interest.
F. In the case of an interest created by a beneficiary designation made before the time the designation becomes irrevocable, a disclaimer shall be delivered to the person making the beneficiary designation.
G. In the case of an interest created by a beneficiary designation made after the time the designation becomes irrevocable, a disclaimer shall be delivered to the person obligated to distribute the interest.
H. In the case of a disclaimer by a surviving holder of jointly held property, the disclaimer shall be delivered to the person to whom the disclaimed interest passes.
I. In the case of a disclaimer by an object or taker in default of exercise of a power of appointment at any time after the power was created, (i) the disclaimer shall be delivered to the holder of the power or to the fiduciary acting under the instrument that created the power or (ii) if no fiduciary is then serving, it shall be filed with a court having authority to appoint the fiduciary.
J. In the case of a disclaimer by an appointee of a nonfiduciary power of appointment, (i) the disclaimer shall be delivered to the holder, the personal representative of the holder’s estate, or the fiduciary under the instrument that created the power or (ii) if no fiduciary is then serving, it shall be filed with a court having authority to appoint the fiduciary.
K. In the case of a disclaimer by a fiduciary of a power over a trust or estate, the disclaimer shall be delivered as provided in subsection C, D, or E, as if the power disclaimed were an interest in property.
L. In the case of a disclaimer of a power by an agent, the disclaimer shall be delivered to the principal or the principal’s representative.