Financial security takes time to achieve. When you receive property as a gift, your cost basis for tax purposes is the donor's cost. Taxable gain is the net selling proceeds less the tax basis. Property obtained by will rather than gift does not suffer this consequence. The beneficiary designations you make to your IRA can be very important for protecting your family's financial well-being.
Beneficiary rules are extremely complex, more than most people realize.
A mistaken choice can prove costly to your family. Most IRA beneficiary designation forms provided by the financial institution state that if a beneficiary dies before the IRA owner does, all of the IRA funds will pass to the surviving beneficiaries on the IRA owner's death. That means that nothing will pass to the family and heirs of the deceased beneficiary. If that is your intent, fine. Otherwise, you should change it.