Why does my will not control who gets my TSP and my SGLI?

Two systems, and only one of them is the one you updated

Most people build their estate plan once, properly, with a lawyer, and reasonably assume it now governs everything they own. For the assets that pass through an estate, it does.

Beneficiary-designated assets do not pass through the estate at all. They pass directly to the named person by contract, before a will has any part to play. A TSP balance and an SGLI payout are frequently the two largest things a service member has, and both are in the second category.

Three forms, three separate answers

The forms that carry designations are maintained by different systems and updated in different places:

• TSP — its own designation, held by the Thrift Savings Plan.
• SGLI — its own election, held through your service.
• DD Form 93 — the Record of Emergency Data, which governs certain death gratuity and notification matters.

Updating one does not update the others. There is no central place where changing your family status propagates to all three, which is exactly why they drift apart.

The conflict that causes real harm

The classic case is a divorce. The decree divides the marital property, the will is rewritten, everyone considers the matter settled — and a designation naming the former spouse sits untouched on one of the three forms.

The designation is what pays. Not the decree, not the will, not the obvious intent.

What to actually do

Pull all three and read them, today, rather than relying on what you remember choosing. Then set a habit of checking them at the same trigger points: marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a deployment, a PCS.

Keep a note of what each one says somewhere your family could find it. The point is not only that the designations are right — it is that someone can confirm they are right without a search.