If my brother in law is the only beneficiary on a life insur

by sheilashelly » Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:54 am

Recently my father in law got killed. He did have a life insurance policy but it only names one of the three children on it. He has told us he would give us a hefty amount and all of a sudden he is back-peddling and is going to keep all the money. Do we have any rights to take him to court and if we do could we receive 1/3 of the benefits even if my brother in law is the only one named on the policy

Total Comments: 9

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 01:08 am Post Subject:

You can try, but I don't know that you will succeed...would be a good idea to call an estate attorney to ask...i'm sure you have a shot at the 'estate' but life policys are different...however states vary....

i am so very sorry to hear not only that your father in law has died (killed? really? :shock: ) but to have this kind of strife between siblings is just awful...what do you suppose is his reasoning for now 'changing his mind'?

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 04:15 am Post Subject: insurance

I, TOO, am sorry to hear that. Alittle confused by the post, however. Did your father in law tell you you WOULD be getting a "hefty amount"..and hen, later on, this was NOT true? So, only ONE of the children are on the Life Insurance policy?

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 08:43 am Post Subject:

Shelly, lori is right, the life insurance policies are different than the rest. You may contest over your father-in-laws estate to secure your share but the life insurance company will forward the benefits only to the named beneficiary. You may contest his beneficiary issue, which is again a complicated affair, but you can't blame him for changing his mind over sharing the policy benefits. However, you may wish to stick around to hear from the experts.

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:25 pm Post Subject:

sheilashelly,

These types of posts are posted here all the time. It's always the same story with the same answer. But what is NEVER posted by the Original Poster is anything about the family dynamics.

For a parent to EXCLUDE a natural born child from their estate, their will, their trust, their life insurance, their annuity or IRAs and other pension plans, is PURPOSEFUL.

We do this all the time and for reasons sometimes ONLY kept by the client. But many clients are more than willing to share why they wouldn't give their black sheep adult child the time of day.

Your Father-in-Law "knew" he had three sons yet only one is listed as beneficiary. What's the reason for this? Has Pops many times bailed someone out of financial distress they created for themselves? Has one of the boys borrowed money from Pops and never paid it back? Has someone lived at home for free until they were 40 years old? Is someone on drugs or an alcoholic?

That being said and to answer your question:

Do we have any rights to take him to court and if we do could we receive 1/3 of the benefits even if my brother in law is the only one named on the policy?


No. You'll lose this one everytime and end up paying both your attorney fees and your brother-in-law's attorney fees.

UNLESS you can PROVE:

1) Fraud; 2) Duress; 3) Undue Influence; or 4) Mental Incompetency;

at the time the beneficairy designation was made.

This will require Court intervention and no attorney will take your case unless you can prove the "legal" reason for a Judge to throw out your Father-in-Laws beneficiary designation on his life insurance policy.

Please post something about the family dynamics and perhaps some reasons why Pops would exclude 2 of his children.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 04:33 am Post Subject: life insurance

WOW, GARY.......I guess you went another 'direction' with this Life Insurance 'delimma'. It does make sense, though. 'Enguiry Minds want to know' on this one, as well.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:36 pm Post Subject:

sdchargersfan, it's not the other direction.

It's the way it is.

You've mention on more than one thread how your ex "thinks" he should be the beneficiary on YOUR life insurance policy and many times you've posted something to the effect of "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!"

Now if you die he'll post a thread here about how his ex wife (you) died and we have a minor child and sdchargersfan left the money to her sister. Can I sue her sister to get those proceeds?

Many times the emotional responses to these threads are from good hearted, good natured persons WHO HAVE NEVER PAID A DEATH CLAIM IN THEIR LIFE.

They read what OP posted, the myopic side of the story and OP offers no other information and it's always presented in an unfair or sympathetic format.

Pathetic is the actual word.

ALWAYS, someone who's NOT getting the money wants to know if there is some way to get the money in which the person who is now DEAD....DID NOT WANT... them to have the money.

Back to you personally, do you want your ex to be able to simply walk into court and have HIM get the death benefit of your life insurance policy but when YOU were alive and the owner of the CONTRACT...... YOU had the sole legal right to name whomever you want as your beneficiary?

In my office we PURPOSEFULLY exclude beneficiaries all the time. The way to do this is to name the person who is being excluded and state that they are being excluded.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 05:21 pm Post Subject: insurance

GARY..................I just mean a 'subject' can have several 'sub-catagries' to it. And what you're doing, GARY..asking WHY this is happening. I 'get what you're doing. I din't mean nything harsh about it. There is always 3 sids to a story.................'his side, her side, and the truth', sort to speak.

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:29 am Post Subject:

sdchargersfan, I didn't take your comments as being harsh.

I don't read any emotion into Internet posts.

I just try to ascertain the main point of the post and answer matter of factly unless I'm purposefully being silly with some incongruent rant on some non-sense contextually incongruent post.

Such as THIS THREAD that I now consider a literary masterpiece although admittedly I'm not sure what I said! :shock:

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:51 am Post Subject: insurance

GARY..........."you're not sure what you said?" LOL I'm sure you said SOMETHING important with all of them words you ued. LOL :D

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