Contesting life insurance beneficiary: Can it be done?

by Guest » Sun Nov 04, 2007 01:17 pm
Guest

My brothers 19 year old son just got killed in an auto accident. We think he had his 19 year old girlfriend ( that he planned to marry someday)as beneficiary on life ins. through his company. Can his parents think of contesting life insurance beneficiary and what are their chances?

Total Comments: 133

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 01:43 pm Post Subject: bene of brothers Life ins. policy

My brother suddenly passed away,he has grown children, divorced and remarried for 8 yrs. worked for the gov for 35 yrs. Left his wife his pension, 401 K and real estate. He had a life Ins. plicy that he took out many yrs ago after his divorced. He named me his sister as primary bene, his mother as contingent and has a Supp. on it for each of his childresn. I did not know of this until after the funeral and his wife called the Ins co and found out I was the Bene. She said that he changed the bene. I work for Ins company so i know the rules. Anyway she wants me to turn over the policy to her. I called the Ins. company and received his policy. Being familiar with policies, I now know what he was trying to tell me. I know he could of changed his bene at any time and has had 8 yrs to do that. I am very close to my brother and his children. Anyway guess the question is ,can she contest this and what are her chances, Believe me i just want to do the right thing.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 04:20 am Post Subject:

the question is ,can she contest this and what are her chances

As the National Lawyer's Anthem goes: [This is] the land of the 40% fee and the home of the bereaved.

She can contest all she wants, but it won't change the law. A person is free to name anyone or anything as his beneficiary, and unless it's her, she has no claim. She can certainly work hard to make your life miserable, to intimidate you into giving her some of the money.

Just remember these words the next time she calls:

GO BUTT A STUMP!

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 05:34 am Post Subject:

Divorced father has two kids. Buys insurance policy in early 80s and names his sister as beneficiary. Continues to keep life insurance in force until his death. Father marries in mid 90s. Father dies recently. Sister takes life insurance money and gives it to 2 (now adult) kids. Wife sues the sister/aunt and 2 kids for life insurance money. Good chances? bad chances?

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 05:55 am Post Subject:

If John names his sister, Jane, the beneficiary of his life insurance in 1985 and John gets married to Joan in 1995, but never changes the beneficiary of his life insurance, when John dies in 2013, Jane is still the beneficiary of John's life insurance. Joan has no claim to any of the life insurance proceeds.

Jane can do whatever she wants with the money. However, giving more than $14,000 in gifts to any one person creates a gift tax liability for Jane (in 2013, the maximum tax-free gift in 2012 was $13,0000). She may use a portion of her $5,000,000 combined gift/estate tax exemption to avoid having to pay tax on the gifts in 2013.

Unfortunately for Jane, Joan lives in America, the land of the tort lawyer and the home of the nuisance suit. Joan can sue anyone she wants for anything she thinks is hers. Joan will probably find an attorney who will not tell her that she has no case, and will file a civil suit on her behalf.

Now Jane has to spend her own money to defend her right to receive and do as she pleases with John's death benefit. Ideally, Jane will hire an experienced attorney, James, who will move for summary judgment at the first hearing and demand reimbursement for all legal fees to defend against a frivolous civil suit, which the court should award to James. Nothing in this for Jane.

Hope this helps to clear your confusion.

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 06:10 am Post Subject:

This does help! I appreciate you making sense of my nonsense. I should have typed it out better than I did, but you pretty much figured it out anyway.

Good news for Jane and the 2 kids.

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 06:15 pm Post Subject: minor child contesting insurance

My son recently died.....he was divorced with two children. My ex-daughter-in-law had it written in the divorce papers she was to collected all insurance benefits. The eldest child will soon be 18 and knew nothing of this arrangement and wants to know if she can stop the payout to her mother so that she can use it for her college education. Her sister will be 15 in June. The mother is planning on using the money to purchase a house instead of holding it for her daughters for their education.

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 05:56 am Post Subject:

Evidently you have not taken the time to read many of the posts that have preceded yours. The answer is, generally speaking, NO. There could be circumstances in which your state law might be different to a limited extent.

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 07:38 pm Post Subject: Life Insurance

My father changed the benficiary and owner of his two life insurance policies to me and then passed away three weeks later. My brother and his wife are now contesting the change. He was deemed competant by a doctor and there was a decree by Probate stating this. Will the insurance company honor this change or will they switch it back to the original beneficiary

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:57 am Post Subject:

Will the insurance company honor this change or will they switch it back to the original beneficiary

If the insurance company fails to honor the change as submitted, they are exposing themselves to big time litigation. If you have something in writing that attests to your father's competence, send a copy of it with a demand letter to the insurance company's claims department.

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 02:01 pm Post Subject: insurance

I was informed when my granddaughter died in a car accident and I had custody of her until she became 18yrs old, she had two children on child lived and I have custody now how biological parents were paid from the same insurance company,now the insurance company said they paid me by mistake a year later and now want to pay it back

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