All of the following are approaches to the short-term survivorship of a beneficiary problem EXCEPT

• A. Use a delay clause for the beneficiary
• B. Use the interest-only option with contingent beneficiaries
• C. Use class beneficiary designations on a per capita basis
• D. Use trusts to take full advantage of the marital deduction

Answer: (C)

Short-term survivorship planning aims to ensure the death benefit reaches the intended recipient even when timing issues arise if a beneficiary dies before or shortly after the insured. A delay clause gives time for contingencies to be resolved before payment; the interest-only option with contingent beneficiaries keeps funds in a controlled flow, so a fallback beneficiary can still receive the value; and using trusts to take full advantage of the marital deduction structures the payout to support the surviving spouse while preserving tax planning, addressing how these funds will be handled if the primary beneficiary doesn’t survive or if timing is tight.

The option that designates a class beneficiaries on a per capita basis, however, is about how shares are allocated among members of a class rather than providing a mechanism to manage survivorship timing or contingencies. It can lead to unintended results if some class members predecease the insured, since the share distribution depends on who survives rather than offering a built-in fallback or timing solution. Therefore it does not address the short-term survivorship issue, making it the exception.