The Wall Street Journal shares a “yuppie campfire tale”: a man’s million-dollar 401(k) is left to his ex-girlfriend, as he’d scribbled her name on paperwork decades earlier when he started his new job, and never updated the paperwork. Oops?

Account beneficiary designations are a pesky chore, but they bypass your will, and it’s worth the time to get them right. Read on for 101 that somehow never made it your way during high school.