Life insurance dispute

by LMAbernathy » Tue Jan 08, 2008 05:51 pm

Is there any thing I can do to change a beneficiary on a life insurance policy?

I am 26, my father, who I lived with and was planning on living with on our family farm for the rest of our lives, recently passed away (just to let you know how close we were). I am the sole beneficiary in his will, I am basically his only relative.

He believed that I was also the Beneficiary on his life insurance policy. He died of terminal cancer and knew he was going to die. He told me, our tax preparer, his stock broker, and several of his close friends that I was changed to the beneficiary of this life insurance policy.

However, when I went to file the claim I found out his ex-wife (they were divorced in 1999) was still listed as the Beneficiary. This was a messy divorce and I know for sure he never intended her to recieve that money after they were divorced.

Here's the kicker...the actual insurance company has changed names 3 times. The represenative that sold him the policy has changed companies 3 times. All 3 of the companies the rep. worked for have now gone out of business. The rep is now retired. The policy its self says to mail a Beneficiary change to one location, then the buyers manual says to mail it somewhere else. The two documents also differ on how the Beneficiary can be changed. One says to mail in a "form" the other states it only needs to be a letter.

I know I was changed to the Beneficiary and the insurance company has lost the documentation. What am I supposed to do?

I already sent a letter to contest the Beneficiary to the insurance company, but other than forwarding it to their lawyers they are being no help. I asked them to contact me several time with information for a local represenative. It has now been 3 weeks and they are yet to get back with me. All I want to know is if my Daddy would have been given a copy of a change of Beneficiary and what that looks like so that maybe I would be able to find it my self.

Total Comments: 3

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 07:28 pm Post Subject:

Hi LMAbernathy and Welcome to the Community.

First of all, I am very sorry for your loss.

None of these insurance companies will talk with you because, according to their records, you have no interest in the insurance policy.

Yes, if your father had changed the beneficiary on his life insurance policy, he would have been mailed a copy of the approved change. I would have no idea of how to describe how it would look. It would simply have your father's policy number and Beneficiary on it and the date this change was made.

Submitting a beneficiary change at this point is useless.

It appears as though a completed, signed by your father, beneficiary change form was never processed by the company, since it has not been changed in their database. It is possible that the form was lost somewhere, considering all the changes in companies and agents, but I don't have any idea how you could prove that now.

Unless someone can locate an approved beneficiary change, I just don't think you have much that you can do.

Sorry.

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 06:15 am Post Subject: Welcome to our community!

Hi aog,

Welcome to the forums!
Your post has been shifted to the following page for inviting more responses:
http://www.ampminsure.org/claims/about4078.html

Regards,
Lakemen

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 10:21 pm Post Subject:

Hopefully you will get this all straightened out and your fathers wishes will be acted upon. I wish you luck and please keep us updated on this, would be interesting to follow.

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