my stepgrandfather is keeping insurance policies from me..

by Grant » Mon Dec 15, 2008 08:25 pm
Posts: 5
Joined: 15 Dec 2008

my grandmother died in 2001 and left me and my family insurance policies. she was married but due to the circumstances of her marriage she didnt leave her husband (my step grandfather; not blood) anything. to this day he has all of the insurance policies locked up and says no one is getting anything until he dies, even though his name isnt on anything. she left me money for college, and i am now 18 years old and ready to go to college. I live in San Diego, CA. and none of us no what company the insurance policies are from. what are my rights? what must i do to get the policies that i am entitled to?? i really need the money and he is not willing to give the policies up, even after 7 years..PLEASE HELP ME!!! THANX. --DG

Total Comments: 54

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 03:03 pm Post Subject:

That seems quite interesting. It means for all those 8 months, she'd never made any attempt to inform her bro regarding this benefit, lest she misses out on something. Now, when you came to know of her bro...did you guys have any right to charge her with a penalty (coz I guess she kept the insurer in complete darkness..). Also, does the bro has any authority to sue his sister if such allegations come true? ..am jus askin you out of curiosity!


It's not a matter of me "coming to know of her brother."

As the agent I simply list the primary beneficiaries and their relationship to the Insured.
Such as:
1) Name, niece
2) Name, nephew
3) Name, grand-niece
4) Name, grand-nephew

The insurer was not in the dark. The insurer was simply waiting until all claim forms were signed, notarized and in good order with current addresses before they released any money to anyone.

All the funds simply sat on deposit with the company at 3% until the claim forms were in order.

The grand-nephew was the one who finally.....had ENOUGH and contacted my office. I thought the claim was paid months earlier as we're not typically involved with the claims past reporting the death and advising where to send the claim forms.

There is nothing to sue anyone about.

From the insurer's perspective they simply had inaccurate or incomplete information and the claim just sat until the issues were resolved.

I found out about these multiple address problems from the grand-nephew and also the "niece" claimed she had "Power of Attorney" or was the "Guardian" of the ADULT nephew but never produced any supporting documentation.

The grand-nephew was in Florida and all the other beneficiaries were out of state.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 09:26 pm Post Subject: insurance

If Granny DID pass away, so many years ago, I want to ask this question, too. Why wait so long to 'fight' it now? It din't bother you THEN? I'm not saying no one doesn't deserve it, I'm just saying did 'circunstances' change...that you din't need it THEN and NOW you do? Since the child was a minor then, that's when the family/parents needed to 'stand up' for this child, or at least, stand up for themselves.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:07 pm Post Subject:

circunstances' change...that you din't need it THEN and NOW you do?

IMO that is precisely the deal...

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 02:47 am Post Subject: insurance

Obviously the grandkids din't get any money from the policy. But...did 'Grandpa 'cash-out' yet? Does sound like a (too familiar..I may add) case of someone being 'money hungry' and trying to 'take control'.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 05:36 am Post Subject:

Well, it sounds feasible from the posts made by Gary….

It's possible.

Anyone could request a policy cash surrender form, fill it out, forge the signature and send it in and the company would send the check.



The other person can actually deceive the insurance company by presenting the necessary documents and forging the sign of the policy-holder. I'm forced to think that its another form of insurance fraud.

Now my question is, what the insurance company will do when the original beneficiary will claim the death benefit?

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:33 am Post Subject: my stepgrandfather is keeping our policies from us

im sorry you misunderstood lori, i meant that there was money for my family and i on my grandmothers life. as in we were the beneficiaries. and a lot of u r asking why we would wait so long..again i was only 11 years old when it happened and my mother is sick (she had severe toxemia at the time and almost died herself) and she still has health problems today..to this day she still isnt up to fighting for the money bcuz of that fact. she cant handle it mentally or physically so i decided to step in. she was abused by my step grand father and that also has a lot to do with it. we r not money hungry people. but again i need the money for college and the policies would help a bunch. she made up with him a couple years ago, and when asked about the policies he replied "no one is getting anything until i die" out of greed. when my grandmother first passed, he sued his son (my uncle) and my mother for one of the policies bcuz my grandmother left him nothing. again my mother was sick herself so she couldnt fight back, and had no one to fight for her. so she only got part of the money. but again that was from one policy and there are more still out there that havent been cashed, including mine.

my stepgrandfather even cashed my cuzins college fund back then, bcuz his son (her father) is a jr., so he forged his signiture and cashed it and spent it. he was getting away with soo much we werent sure we could do anything about it until recently when someone told us otherwise. and again, his name isnt on anything. by the way he couldnt have spent mine or my siblings or mothers like he did my uncles daughter's policy, bcuz he is not my mothers biological father, no same last name or anything. (my uncle and my mother are half brother and sister; sorry if this is confusing lol)

Garyspicuzza (sp) thank you for your answer, it was the most helpful one. any other advice would be greatly appreciated rather than all of the shoulda woulda coulda type criticizing...thanx again! ---Grant

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 04:58 am Post Subject: insurance

Well.........I don't think we were trying to criticize you. We were just trying to find out information on your situation...just trying to help. LORI's a 'pretty good' one to give good advice and help people to go the right 'direction.' But, to do that, we ALL needed some kind of 'background...why wasn't THIS done, etc. Hope you understand.

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 08:13 am Post Subject: my stepgrandfather is keeping our policies from us

oh yes i definately understand, but to ask things such as why my parents didnt take charge in the first place, of course they had their reasons, however, their reasons are irrevelant to my initial question, truly, i wish my mother wouldve had the strength to do something about it back then, but i cant dwell on it. the past is the past i cant change it so its just about where i need to go from here...i do appreciate the advice though. on another note, i am confused as far as calling the insurance companies...is there a way i could possibly find on the internet or something, where the policies even came from? bcuz again, i dont even know which insurance companies hold the policies and thats the difficult part....what should i do???

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 08:45 am Post Subject:

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the challenge now is to find out which insurance companies Grant's grandmother bought insurance poilcies from.

It is obviously an uphill task to look for the insurance companies that issued insurance policies to Grant's grandmother since Grant does not have any information pertaining to those policies.

What I could advice is that Grant does not need to have the insurance policies from the step grandfather to submit claims, however, Grant needs advice from anyone who comes across this post to know how to go about to look for the insurance companies that insured Grant's grandmother.

On the other hand, it seems the step grandfather had cashed out some policies from some insurance companies, if Grant still remembers those companies, they can be a good start for the search.

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