Last reviewed: September 2026.
The Beneficiary Value Add is an estate planning overview. It shows who inherits the household's accounts and life insurance policies, and how much each person would receive.
This article explains every section of the report, where each value comes from, and what you can change.
What Is the Beneficiary Value Add?
Requires the Pro plan. The Beneficiary Value Add is off by default for every firm.
To turn it on, go to Settings › Value Adds, switch on the toggle on the Beneficiary card, and click Save Changes. Only admins can change these settings. On the Free plan the toggle switches back off and an upgrade window opens.
The report:
Sums up every primary beneficiary and the total each would receive.
Sums up every contingent beneficiary in the same way.
Lists each owner's accounts and policies with the named beneficiaries, their tier, percentage, and dollar amount.
Prints "Missing Beneficiaries" where a tier is empty.
SurgeTK builds it from the beneficiaries saved on accounts and on life insurance policies.
1. Header and Branding
Logo
Pulled from the company logo saved under Settings › Firm Info.
If no logo is saved, the report prints without one.
Branding color
Uses the Firm Branding Color from Settings › Firm Info.
The default is a dark gray.
It colors the dots between the footer items and the report's accent lines.
Report title
Default title: "Beneficiary Report".
Change it under Settings › Value Adds › Beneficiary › Show Settings › Beneficiary Title. The title applies to every household.
If you save the title blank, the report prints "Beneficiary Value Add".
Admins can also rename it in place: turn on Annotations on the report page and open the marker on the title.
2. Reported "As-Of" Date
The header prints "Reported as of" followed by a date in M/D/YYYY format, for example "2/4/2026".
It is the latest As Of Date found on any account in the household. Closed accounts count too.
If no account has an As Of Date, today's date is used.
You cannot type this date on the report. To change it, update the As Of Date on the accounts.
3. Client Name Line
Built from the clients in the household. Each client's age prints as a small superscript. A client with no date of birth shows "--".
One client: "Last, First".
Two clients with the same last name: "Last, First1 & First2".
Two clients with different last names: "Last1, First1 & Last2, First2".
Three or more clients: "Last, First +2 more".
Deceased clients are left out when at least one living client exists.
The names follow the same capitalization rules as the beneficiary names (see section 8).
4. Primary Beneficiaries Table
The first table, headed "Primary Beneficiaries", lists every primary beneficiary across all included accounts and policies.
Columns
Name: the beneficiary's name, shown as First Last.
Total Receives: the dollar total this person would receive across every account and policy where they are a primary beneficiary.
How Total Receives is calculated
For each account, the Account Value is multiplied by the beneficiary's percentage. For each policy, the Face Amount is multiplied by the percentage. The shares are added up per person.
Example:
Darin is primary on an IRA worth $500,000 at 50%. He receives $250,000.
Darin is also primary on a life insurance policy with a $1,000,000 face amount at 100%. He receives $1,000,000.
Darin's Total Receives: $1,250,000
A person named on several accounts gets one row.
A beneficiary with 0% is left out of the summary tables.
A joint account counts once in the totals, even though it prints under each living owner (see section 6).
5. Contingent Beneficiaries Table
The second table, headed "Contingent Beneficiaries", lists the people who inherit if the primary beneficiaries cannot. It works exactly like the primary table, using the contingent designations.
6. Per-Owner Blocks
Below the summary tables, the report prints one block per owner. The block heading is the owner's name.
Columns
Column | What prints |
Account | The account type plus the last 4 digits of the account number, for example "Traditional IRA - 1234". For a policy, "Life Insurance - 5678" (the last 4 digits of the Policy Number). Only digits count toward the last 4. |
Value | The Account Value for an account. The Face Amount for a policy. |
Beneficiary | The names. Primary beneficiaries first, then a blank line, then contingent beneficiaries. |
Type | "Primary" or "Contingent" on each line. |
% | Each beneficiary's percentage. |
Receives | Value multiplied by the percentage. |
How rows are grouped
An account prints under each of its living owners. A joint account owned by two living clients prints twice, once in each owner's block. The summary totals count it once.
Deceased owners get no block. A joint account with one deceased owner prints only under the living owner.
An account with no living linked owner prints under a block headed "Unlinked Accounts". SurgeTK also records a warning that counts these accounts.
A policy with no Owner prints under a block headed "Unknown Owner".
Rows print in the order the records are stored. They are not sorted.
Color-coded headers
Each block's table header takes its color from the owner's Gender on the client record:
Male: light blue.
Female: light pink.
Other or blank: light gray.
Page breaks
A block heading always stays on the same page as its table when the report is printed or downloaded.
7. Two Data Sources: Accounts and Life Insurance
Accounts
Value shown: the Account Value.
Where to edit beneficiaries: household › Accounts tab › open the account › Beneficiaries tab. Use Add Primary Beneficiary and Add Contingent Beneficiary, each with a percentage.
Beneficiaries can also be imported. See Importing Beneficiaries below.
Life insurance policies
Value shown: the Face Amount (the death benefit), never the cash value.
Where to edit beneficiaries: household › Insurance tab › open the policy › Beneficiaries tab. The form says "Allocations must total 100%." for each tier.
Only policies linked to the household are included.
Why face amount and not cash value? The Beneficiary report shows what beneficiaries would receive. For life insurance that is the death benefit. The Net Worth report uses the cash value instead, because it shows what the household could access today.
8. How Names Are Shown
Every name on the report goes through the same formatting: account beneficiaries, policy beneficiaries, owners, and the header.
Order
"Last, First" becomes "First Last". "Smith, John" prints as "John Smith".
Every comma is used. "Smith, John, Jr" prints as "John Smith Jr".
A suffix after the comma is kept in place. "John Smith, Jr." and "Smith, III" are not reordered.
Organizations are never reordered. A name counts as an organization when it contains a word such as trust, estate, inc, LLC, LLP, Ltd, corp, corporation, foundation, ministries, university, college, institute, society, association, alliance, council, museum, library, hospital, charity, charities, endowment, humane, SPCA, ASPCA, shelter, svcs, organization, partnership, holdings, or FBO.
Capitalization
Only names written entirely in upper case or entirely in lower case are re-cased. "JOHN SMITH" and "john smith" print as "John Smith". A mixed-case name such as "Jan van der Berg" prints exactly as typed.
One repair applies to mixed-case names: a single lone lowercase initial is capitalized. "John q Smith" prints as "John Q Smith". Names with two or more lone lowercase letters, and the connectives "y" and "i", are left alone.
"Mc" names are handled: "MCDONALD" prints as "McDonald". "Mac" names get normal casing, so "MACHADO" prints as "Machado".
An apostrophe after a short prefix starts a capital: "O'BRIEN" prints as "O'Brien".
Hyphens, slashes, and periods start a new capital: "MARY-JANE" prints as "Mary-Jane", and "B.J. SMITH" prints as "B.J. Smith".
"JR" and "SR" print as "Jr" and "Sr". Roman numerals at the end of a name stay upper case: "iii" prints as "III".
These acronyms stay upper case: ASPCA, SPCA, AARP, YMCA, YWCA, NRA, ACLU, NAACP, UNICEF, WWF, PETA, USO, VFW, AMVETS, PBS, NPR, ALS, MADD, AAUW, LLC, LLP, PLLC, USA, UCLA, and NYU. "IRA" is not on the list, because Ira is also a first name.
Small words in the middle of a name are lower-cased: of, the, and, for, in, on, at, by, to, an, or. "ESTATE OF WILLIAM THOMPSON" prints as "Estate of William Thompson". A lone "A" is treated as a middle initial and stays capitalized: "MARY A SMITH" prints as "Mary A Smith".
9. The "Missing Beneficiaries" Line
When an account or policy has no primary beneficiary, the Beneficiary column prints "Missing Beneficiaries" in italics on the Primary line. The Type column still says "Primary". The % and Receives cells stay blank.
The same happens for an empty contingent tier.
When both tiers are empty, one "Missing Beneficiaries" line prints.
When every primary beneficiary is a trust, an empty contingent tier is not flagged. A name counts as a trust when it contains the word trust, trusts, trustee, trustees, TTEE, or TR. One person named beside the trust brings the flag back.
How to hide it
For the whole firm: Settings › Value Adds › Beneficiary › Show Settings › check Hide the “Missing Beneficiaries” callout › Save Changes. Empty tiers then print blank on every report.
For one account: open the account › Beneficiaries tab › check This account intentionally has no beneficiaries. Empty tiers print blank for that account only. Insurance policies do not have this box.
10. Which Accounts and Policies Are Included
Beneficiary is the most inclusive report. It includes every account that is not cash.
Accounts that are included
All retirement accounts: IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), and the rest.
Brokerage and investment accounts.
Annuities.
Trust accounts.
HSAs.
529 plans and custodial accounts (UTMA/UGMA). Net Worth leaves these out. Beneficiary keeps them.
Inherited IRAs and beneficiary IRAs.
Accounts typed "Other".
Accounts that are excluded
Cash accounts: checking, savings, money market, certificate of deposit (CD), and cash. The investable patterns are tested first, so "QCD IRA" and "Health Savings Account" are not treated as cash. "Thrift Savings Plan" spelled out matches "savings" and is left out, while "TSP" is kept.
Accounts with no account type. They are treated as cash. The report prints a footnote above the footer, and SurgeTK records a warning on the Value Add.
Closed accounts. An account is closed when its Date Closed is set, or its Account Status is Closed, Transferred, or Inactive.
Open accounts with exactly $0.
Accounts whose every owner is deceased. A joint account with one living owner stays.
Policies
Term and Permanent policies are both included.
Policies with Status Closed, Lapsed, Expired, Surrendered, or Terminated are left out. In Force, Paid Up, Claim Paid, Matured, and Pending stay.
Only policies linked to the household are included.
Policies are not removed when the owner is deceased.
The Exclusions tab
Open the account and go to the Exclusions tab. Under Value Adds, set Beneficiary to Automatic, Always include, or Always exclude. A manual choice wins over every rule above. The tab shows the reason for the current decision, for example "Reviewed for beneficiary designations", "Cash-equivalent account type", "No account type set (treated as cash)", "Closed account", "$0 account value", or "All account owners are deceased".
11. How Duplicate Names Are Merged
The same person often exists as several records. A CRM sync writes "JOHN SMITH", the account form gets "John Smith", and an import brings "Smith, John". The report merges them.
Names are compared after reordering "Last, First", removing accents, ignoring upper and lower case, and dropping apostrophes, periods, and other punctuation. "John Doe", "john doe", and "Doe, John" are one row. "José" and "Jose" are one row.
"John Smith" merges with "John A Smith" when the pairing is clear. The merged row prints "John A Smith". The merge does not happen when the names carry different suffixes, when either looks like an organization, when both "John A Smith" and "John B Smith" exist, or when the two names belong to two different client records in the household.
The same person listed twice on one account tier prints as one line with the percentages added. "JOHN SMITH" at 50% and "John Smith" at 50% print as John Smith at 100%.
Beneficiaries at 0% are left out of the summary tables.
12. Common Questions
Why do I see "Missing Beneficiaries"?
The account or policy has no beneficiary in that tier. Add one on the Beneficiaries tab, or hide the line (see section 9).
Why is a beneficiary field blank?
The firm setting or the account's This account intentionally has no beneficiaries box hides the "Missing Beneficiaries" line. A blank still means nothing is designated.
Why doesn't the total match what I expect?
Check that percentages are set on every account.
Life insurance uses the face amount, not the cash value.
Joint accounts print under each owner but count once.
A 0% beneficiary is not in the summary tables.
Merged names combine amounts (see section 11).
Where is the "No beneficiaries found" warning?
SurgeTK stores the warning "No beneficiaries found on any accounts!" on the Value Add. It fires only when no included account and no included policy has a beneficiary with a percentage above 0. The household's Value Adds card does not show a warning for missing beneficiaries. Open the report and look for "Missing Beneficiaries".
Does the report show per stirpes?
No. The account's Apply per stirpes distribution to this account box is saved but not printed. The report also shows no relationship, date of birth, or age for beneficiaries.
Why is there a footnote about accounts with no type?
An account with no account type is treated as cash and left off. The footnote reads, for example: "*1 account totaling $12,000 is not included above — no account type is set." Set the Account Type, or include the account from its Exclusions tab.
Why is an account under "Unlinked Accounts"?
The account has no living owner linked to it. Set the Account Owner on the account.
13. Firm-Level Configuration
All settings live under Settings › Value Adds › Beneficiary. Click Show Settings to open the fields, then Save Changes. Only admins can save.
Setting | What it does | Default |
The toggle on the card | Turns the Beneficiary Value Add on or off for the whole firm. Requires the Pro plan. | Off |
Beneficiary Title | The title printed at the top of every Beneficiary report. | "Beneficiary Report". A blank title prints "Beneficiary Value Add". |
Beneficiary Disclaimer | Custom text placed inside the footer disclaimer. | "THIS BENEFICIARY REPORT IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT ALL THE ACCOMPANYING DISCLAIMERS!..." |
Hide the “Missing Beneficiaries” callout | Leaves an empty tier blank on every report instead of printing "Missing Beneficiaries". | Unchecked |
There are no rate settings. The report is built only from account and insurance data.
Blank disclaimer: if you clear the disclaimer and save, the report prints only the standard sentences. The settings page then shows "Default disclaimer for Beneficiary Value Add..." in the field. The next Save Changes stores that text and prints it.
Admins can also edit the title and disclaimer in place from the report page with Annotations. Those edits are firm-wide too.
14. Footer and Disclaimer
Footer
The footer prints the firm Address, Phone Number, and Firm Website URL from Settings › Firm Info. Blank fields are skipped. A small dot in the branding color separates the items.
Disclaimer
The disclaimer has three parts, all printed in upper case: "Generated for the clients of" followed by the household's lead advisor names, then your Beneficiary Disclaimer text, then "Value Add copyright SurgeTK, All rights reserved."
Two or more advisors are joined with "and".
If the household has no lead advisor, the disclaimer prints "NO ADVISORS ASSIGNED" in red.
In Summary
Estate planning focused. Who inherits what, across accounts and life insurance.
The most inclusive report. Every account except cash, plus every open policy linked to the household.
Two values. Accounts use the Account Value. Policies use the Face Amount.
Clean names. "Last, First" is reordered, upper-case names are re-cased, and duplicate records merge into one row.
Gaps are visible. An empty tier prints "Missing Beneficiaries" unless you hide it.
If the report looks incomplete, the most likely cause is a missing beneficiary on an account or policy. The report can only show what has been entered.