Will Your Rewards Points Die with You?

If you die, your rewards points may die with you.  According to a recent study by marketresearch firm Colloquy, major rewards programs like Delta SkyMiles, SouthwestRapid Rewards, and Hilton HHonors generally do not allow points to betransferred after death. 

According to their research, outstanding loyalty points hadan estimated total value of $50 billion in 2011, but around 76% of loyalty clubmembers have not considered who would inherit their balances. 

Their study also shows that many companies may not haveconsidered the issue either.  AmericanExpress Membership Rewards, Citibank’s ThankYou Rewards, and Best WesternRewards don’t detail their policies online, which can lead to conflictinginterpretations from customer service reps. Other companies can have complicated or restrictive inheritance policiessuch as only allowing transfers to spouses, only allowing heirs to redeempoints but not transfer them,  requiringexecutors to pay transfer fees, or requiring a death certificate to be sentwithin a certain time frame.

Loyalty club members should consider including accountnumbers, passwords, and balances as an addendum to their will.  However, bequeathing point balances will notsupersede the terms of service of particular programs.

Click here for a chart detailing different policies frommajor airline, hotel, and credit card rewards programs.

See Kelli B.Grant, ‘Til Death Do Us Part: RewardPoints Don’t Live On, CNBC, Oct. 24, 2013.

Special thanks to Joseph Greer, J.D. (Johnson Bender& Company) for bringing this article to my attention.