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 Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 10:01 pm Post subject: Who would get the life insurance benefits? |
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| My father passed away and had listed his children as the beneficiary of his Life insurance policy. The policy was from 1986 and he was not married at the time took out the policy. He was married at the time of his passing. Who would the benefits go to in this case in the state of AZ? His wife as AZ being a community property state or the children listed as the beneficiaries? |
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ddempsey
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| Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Who would the benefits go to in this case in the state of AZ? |
Whomever is listed as the beneficary on the life policy | Quote: | | His wife as AZ being a community property state or the children listed as the beneficiaries? |
not the wife, unless she's the beneficary, (maybe dad changed it after marriage?)...
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Lori
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| As stated the benefit will go to the named beneficiaries in the policy. Unless your dad changed this to his wife, you and your siblings should receive the benefit. Community property only means that he has certain obligations to name his wife joint owner or primary beneficiary when establishing certain investment accounts. |
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BNTRS
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| It depends if the policy has the benni's listed by name or the phrase all surviving children of __________. |
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Pokerguy
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:15 am Post subject: |
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This was left in my 'in box' by the OP | Quote: | | if the children are listed as the beneficiaries (which they are), why would cigna be accepting a claim for the policy by the wife. then passing everything on to their legal department to decide how it will be paid out? we appreciate your comments. |
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Lori
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:17 am Post subject: |
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Sounds to me like the wife has challenged the pay out. I would be contact this legal dept. myself and ask them to show me in the policy WHERE it says they will pay a surving spouse and disregarding the named beneficarys..and do this immediately. I would further advise them if they intend to pay this to the spouse, to expect a lawsuit..
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Lori
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| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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If the children are listed as beneficiaries, whether they actually get paid the money directly to them depends on their ages. In almost every state, you have to be at least 18 to directly receive life insurance proceeds.
If the child(ren) haven't yet reached age 18, there's the possibility that the court has in place some sort of custodial, conservatorship or trust arrangement set up and the mom is involved. This is pretty common.
Again- heed the advice from fellow posters and check stuff out!
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InsTeacher
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Teacher
| Quote: | | If the child(ren) haven't yet reached age 18, there's the possibility that the court has in place some sort of custodial, conservatorship or trust arrangement set up and the mom is involved. |
Does this means even if the mom has custody of the benefits now, the money would ultimately go to the children when they come of age?
The OP should find out as soon as possible why they are designing payment options for the mother.
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sil
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think we have ANY minors in this question. The policy was written in 1986..
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Lori
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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The process by state law usually involves something of this nature:
Insured dies and leaves benefit to children as named beneficiaries.
Proceeds are held in a trust established by court.
Named guardian of the children has the ability to request funds and accesses them through a court order--can be a PITA.
In any event, you'll need an attorney who understands the community property laws of Arizona. The fact is life insurance proceeds can be due to the wife in certain scenarios and generally a consent to not be the named beneficiary is required (some states will assume consent if the beneficiary is a close relative)
Yes the policy was established before the marriage, but like a lot of items you own before marriage what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. |
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BNTRS
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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The named children are all adults from the first marriage and are listed by name as the beneficiaries. The third wife who was married to the dad after the policy had been written, but at the time of death, is filing claim to the policy.
The adult children / listed beneficiaries are wondering what rights they have versus the rights of the 3rd wife who was married to the father for approximately 15 years.
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ddempsey1
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:08 am Post subject: |
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| The money is going to go to the children unless we are missing something here. She can file a claim, but without being the beneficiary, the insurance company won't give her the money. |
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InsuranceExpert
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The adult children / listed beneficiaries are wondering what rights they have versus the rights of the 3rd wife who was married to the father for approximately 15 years. |
Unless there is some crazy law or claus in this life policy (doubt it)...she doesn't have a claim...she can file a protest, but I don't see how she'd win...unless Dad has some will or notarized statement somewhere that says, in the event of his death, and he didn't have time, or neglected to change the beneficarys on any and all policys to his present wife. I don't even know that, this would do it for her, and it's highly unlikely anyway.
Why is she protesting this anyway? Did he not leave her another policy or other money to live on?
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Lori
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:14 am Post subject: |
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Will won't matter. The only chance she'd have at contesting this successfully would be a request to change the beneficiary to prove that it was in process but never completed; even at that point it's a tough fight.
Like insuranceexpert stated, unless there is another piece to this that we don't know, this money is going to be paid to the children, the named beneficiaries in the policy, at is contractually required, and as should be the case if all the facts are as we've come to know them. |
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BNTRS
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| Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:55 am Post subject: |
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We just want to say thank you to all the people who posted. We agree with all the posts and there are no other hidden circumstances or pieces to this issue. We were confused by the fact that the insurance company accepted a claim for the policy from the wife.
When we spoke with the insurance company, they said that anyone, absolutely any person, can file a claim against the policy and the insurance company must go through due process to determine eligibility.
The only motivation of the wife that we know of is greed. Yes Lori, she made extreme profits from the marriage and his death. The children have recieved no assets or belongings from their father at this point.
This was a policy that the children did not know existed. When the wife filed a claim against the policy shortly after his death, she found out that she was not the beneficiary of this single policy. The dad's former employer contacted the children, but since the wife had originally filed the claim, the insurance company said they must follow due process. We are confused as to why, if she has no rights to the policy, she can delay and appeal to keep the process unresolved? We posted this because we are wondering if there are any laws that would override the listed beneficiaries of a life insurance policy. We honestly appreciate the comments and feel more comfortable with the process and empowered to make some phone calls if necessary.
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ddempsey2
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