Ex-Spouse, Divorce Decree and Unpaid Life Insurance

by Guest » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:17 pm
Guest

A member of my family divorced his wife a few years ago and in the divorce decree they both agreed to maintain life insurance policies for ten years naming each other as beneficiaries. His ex-wife recently and suddenly passed away and it has emerged that she stopped paying her premiums over a year ago and the policy has, of course, lapsed. Does he have any recourse in this situation?

Would the answer be different if it turns out the ex-wife and her secretary were intentionally lying to and stealing from my relative?

Total Comments: 24

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 05:29 am Post Subject:

Obviously too late to enforce a court order, as you have to be alive to get whacked by a court in the pure sense.

This is, plain and simple, violation of a court order if the life insurance requirement was actually in the divorce decree. Kind of hard to sue a dead person, obviously, and the court order cannot now be enforced, again since she's dead. The only recourse you have is to sue the estate of the decedent for the amount of the required life insurance death benefit. You would only have this right if you were designated by the court as the mandated irrevocable beneficiary of the required policy.

Good luck on that one. Don't take this the wrong way, but it's probably not going to happen. Talk to a lawyer, but make sure it's a "free consultation" kind of thing, if you like.

The issue about the stealing has absolutely no bearing on this at all.

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 09:58 am Post Subject:

Did he communicate this thing to the agent?

I guess it now has to go through some form of litigation, unless he could settle it with the insurer (which seems tougher)

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 05:17 pm Post Subject:

I guess it now has to go through some form of litigation, unless he could settle it with the insurer (which seems tougher)



As InsTeacher pointed out, this is now a matter between the living ex-spouse and the estate of the deceased ex-spouse. Had the court ordered each to be named as irrevocable beneficiary, then the beneficiary has the right to be notified in advance of a policy's pending lapse in view of the court order requiring insurance to be kept in force.

There is no other liability on the part of the insurance company if no such notice was give by the beneficiary ex-spouse, which means there is nothing for the insurer to "settle". The living person, however, is now free to -- and must IMMEDIATELY -- change the beneficiary on their existing policy if they have not already done so and expect the money to go to anyone else of their choosing.

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 02:53 pm Post Subject: ex-spouse died and changed life insurance beneficiary to new

Divorce decree required deceased ex-husband to carry life insurance on ex, but no amount or policy were ever listed in the divorce. So ex-wife sues deceased's husband's estate to recover insurance policy proceeds left to current wife / widow. Can ex-wife win a judgment against widow since no amounts or policies were actually listed in the divorce decree???

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 04:03 pm Post Subject:

Any judgment would have to be obtained against the estate of the decedent, with the estate administrator named as respondent. Assuming that all estate "assets" have transferred to the surviving spouse, that person would likely be the respondent to any civil suit seeking restitution from the decedent's estate. If assets are in a trust, then the trustee would be the respondent. But the judgment is against the estate not the individual administrator.

This will probably take attorneys knowledgeable in both family law (divorce) and probate/estate planning law to determine if there is a cause of action.

It's possible that the right to recover the value of any insurance proceeds at this point in time may have been waived (lost) for failure to bring a timely cause of action asserting one's right to insurance under the divorce order described in the post during the lifetime of the now-deceased spouse.

Generally, state law will control here, unless the insurance in force was employer-sponsored group coverage, in which case ERISA controls and the current spouse is most likely the default beneficiary regardless of any provisions in state law or a divorce order.

In any event, there is no cause of action here against any insurance company for wrongdoing.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 02:22 am Post Subject:

Is there a will? If not, he can wait for the public hearing and show up as a party with an interest in the estate, wouldn't be very hard to prove his interest in the estate at that point.

As other's have pointed out, there's really no enforcing the decree to the degree of someone who will automatically reward the ex husband the funds he was supposed to receive in the life insurance policy.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 06:43 pm Post Subject:

As others have posted he can try and collect from the deceased estate. Another possible idea would be to sue his divorce attorney. At least the divorce judgements I've seen (and I haven't seen many) are drafted by the attorneys and signed off on by the judge. One could state that his attorney failed to adaquetly provide for his interest.

I always love how the court decrees the purchase of insurance, but if the person is uninsurable what can they do then?

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 10:29 pm Post Subject:

I always love how the court decrees the purchase of insurance, but if the person is uninsurable what can they do then?



Go back to court, the attorneys love that.

Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 05:31 am Post Subject:

Go back to court, the attorneys love that.



I think it's actually taught in the first year of law school:

Running the Fee Meter -- Taxi 101

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