Introducing Beneficiaries: A Complete Workflow for Equity Inheritance

Every company thinks carefully about how to grant equity. Vesting schedules, cliff periods, exercise windows, tax implications — these get discussed, modeled, and documented.

But there is one question that gets asked usually when it’s too late: what happens to this equity if something happens to the employee?

For most companies, the honest answer is: "We don't know."

And this is a problem. In the US alone, over 10 million employees actively hold equity through ESOPs, with these plans paying out $166 billion in 2023. Globally, more than 215,000 companies are now backed by private equity or venture capital, each with employees, advisors, and investors building real wealth through stock options and grants.

To that effect, we are announcing Beneficiaries — a system that makes equity inheritance verifiable, acknowledged, and legally sound.

Who is a beneficiary/nominee on EquityList?

Terminology varies by region — "nominee" is common in India and Singapore, while "beneficiary" is standard in the US and UK. On the EquityList platform, both terms mean the same thing: the person designated to inherit a stakeholder's equity if something happens to them.

Throughout this post, we use "beneficiary/nominee" to cover both.

The wealth no one is protecting

For many stakeholders, especially at startups, equity will become the most valuable asset they ever build. It represents years of work, compounding value, and real wealth — sometimes worth more than their savings, property, or retirement accounts combined.

Yet most companies have no reliable system to ensure this wealth reaches the stakeholder's family if something goes wrong.

Here's what we see in practice:

• Beneficiary/nominee details do not exist at all - Many companies never collect this information. Others capture it once as a column in an onboarding spreadsheet and then fail to maintain it regularly.
• Beneficiaries/nominees have no idea they have been designated - There's no notification, no acknowledgment, no confirmation that the person even knows they are nominated.
• Records go stale silently - A stakeholder gets married, has children, gets separated — but the nomination from three years ago still names an ex-partner or a parent. No one prompts an update.
• When transmission events happen, confusion follows - The stakeholder passes away. The company scrambles to figure out who the beneficiary/nominee is, whether the nomination is valid, and if they have supporting documentation. Legal disputes arise and families can end up waiting months or years.
• Minors as beneficiaries/nominees create additional complexity - Stakeholders want to name their children, but most systems don't capture guardian information or ensure legal compliance.

The result is that equity — often a stakeholder's most significant financial asset — becomes invisible wealth that families never inherit. They don't know it exists. Companies cannot verify who should receive it. And in too many cases, it simply goes unclaimed.

And that is a shame because research shows that employees who are also stockholders have a 92% higher median household wealth.

A system-of-record for transparency, verification, and security

Our Beneficiaries module changes this. It gives stakeholders a clear way to designate beneficiaries/nominees from their EquityList dashboard, ensures those recipients know and acknowledge their nomination, and gives companies a verified record when equity needs to transfer.

• Beneficiaries/nominees know they have been designated - Recipients are notified and can formally acknowledge through a secure, logged process. No more silent nominations that families discover too late.
• Verified identities, not just names in a spreadsheet - Full KYC with government-issued ID and address proof ensures there is no ambiguity about who should inherit the equity when it matters.

• Proper handling for minor beneficiaries/nominees - When a stakeholder designates a minor, the system requires legal guardian information with separate notification and acknowledgment.
• Sensitive documents stay protected - Stakeholders can upload wills, letters of intent, or personal declarations. These documents are encrypted, invisible to the employer, and only accessible during transmission events with proper legal documentation.

Why we built this

Companies spend enormous energy getting equity right — executing grants, managing cap tables, staying compliant. But the question of what happens when equity needs to transfer to a loved one has been ignored for too long.

We built Beneficiaries because we believe the systems that help stakeholders build wealth should also protect inheritance. Beneficiary/nominee management shouldn't be a forgotten form or an Excel column. It should be verified, acknowledged, and secure.

This is just the beginning. While Beneficiaries currently supports equity grant holders, we'll be expanding it to cover advisors, investors, and other shareholders in the future.

If you are an existing EquityList customer, Beneficiaries module is already available to your employees.