As a participant in the Plan, you will be asked to name a beneficiary (the person or persons or your estate that will receive benefits in the event of your death) and the percentage payable to that beneficiary.

By law, your Plan accounts must be paid to your surviving spouse at your date of death unless your spouse has consented to your naming a different beneficiary. If you are married and you name someone other than your spouse as a beneficiary, an authorization form will be mailed to your mailing address. You must obtain your spouse's written consent to your naming another beneficiary, and the authorization form must be witnessed by a notary public and returned to the Plan within 60 days for your beneficiary designation to take effect.

If your spouse is named as your beneficiary and you divorce, you must file a new beneficiary form with the Plan to name others as your beneficiaries, subject to the terms of any qualified domestic relations order ("QDRO"). Otherwise, your former spouse will remain your beneficiary if you are single at the time of your death.

If you marry after naming others (such as your children) as your beneficiaries, your beneficiary designations become invalid. To keep the same beneficiaries after you marry, you must obtain the written consent of your new spouse on a Plan form.

For purposes of the Plan, your "spouse" is the person to whom you are legally married under the laws of any state in the United States, the District of Columbia or any foreign jurisdiction as of the earlier of your benefit commencement date or the date of your death. You may be required to provide the Plan Administrator with a valid marriage certificate/license.

If you do not name a beneficiary during your lifetime, or if none of the beneficiaries you name is alive at the time of your death, your benefit will be paid to the following persons (if still living) in the following order of priority:

If you name multiple beneficiaries and do not otherwise specify, upon your death the amounts designated for beneficiaries who may have died before you will be distributed to your surviving beneficiaries as if they were the only beneficiaries you named. No distribution will be made to a designated beneficiary who dies before you. If you do not specify otherwise on the beneficiary form, your beneficiaries will share equally.

Only you, as an employee or former employee, may name a beneficiary for your account. In the event that your account transfers to your beneficiary, that beneficiary will not be able to name a subsequent beneficiary on the account.

Keep your beneficiary designation up to date since, in the event of your death, your Plan accounts will be paid in full to the beneficiary or beneficiaries you have named and, if none are living at that time, will be paid in accordance with the defaults listed above.