by sireproxy1 » Fri Oct 22, 2010 03:19 pm
My Dad recently passed away and I am trying to learn as much as I can about collecting on his life insurance policies as I can. Can you please give me your advice or provide me with some links or suggestions of sites that I can go to, to learn about how many different options there are to claiming and receiving life insurance as a beneficiary?
I live in Wisconsin and the deceased is from Wisconsin, if that matters in your answers. The policies have either two or three beneficiaries.
Some things I would like to learn about are:
How do I make a claim?
How is the money delivered? There are three beneficiaries.
Are taxes taken out of the money?
Is there more than one way to receive the money to reduce or eliminate the amount of taxes taken out of it?
Is there anything I can invest the money in that would eliminate or reduce taxes?
You probably get the idea of what I am after, but I'm sure I missed a bunch more questions, so if you have more answers to questions I didn't ask, please give me as much info as you can. If anyone else out there reading this has questions to ask, please add them on. If anyone has suggestions or answers, please reply.
Thank you and best regards to all.
I live in Wisconsin and the deceased is from Wisconsin, if that matters in your answers. The policies have either two or three beneficiaries.
Some things I would like to learn about are:
How do I make a claim?
How is the money delivered? There are three beneficiaries.
Are taxes taken out of the money?
Is there more than one way to receive the money to reduce or eliminate the amount of taxes taken out of it?
Is there anything I can invest the money in that would eliminate or reduce taxes?
You probably get the idea of what I am after, but I'm sure I missed a bunch more questions, so if you have more answers to questions I didn't ask, please give me as much info as you can. If anyone else out there reading this has questions to ask, please add them on. If anyone has suggestions or answers, please reply.
Thank you and best regards to all.
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 04:13 am Post Subject:
Well that's impressive! Maybe you can put my mind at ease?! My mother passed about 6 months ago from lung cancer, and we are just now finalizing the benefit claims. Is it a the natural precaution for the insurance company to review the claim and if so will it affect wether or not the benefits are legal to claim? In other words, will the insurance company void the benefits to be unclaimable do to the cause of death being lung cancer cause by smoking? Will they not accept it as a natural cause of death and look down on the cause?
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 04:48 am Post Subject:
If the policy was in effect for more than two years prior to the death of your mother, there will be no challenges to the death claim. Within the first two years, the insurance company has the right to check medical records and other sources looking for any "material misrepresentations" in the application for insurance that would allow it to void the policy after a death has occurred.
All states have INCONTESTABILITY provisions in their insurance codes (which must be contained in the contract) that prohibit insurance companies from reevaluating an insured's insurability two years from the policy issue date.
The death claim should have been submitted immediately following her death. As long as the policy has been in force more than 2 years, the only possible way to void the policy at this late date is if there was no insurable interest at the time the policy was applied for or issued, and this is not likely to be the case with your mother's policy.
Having said that, if your mother's policy is an ACCIDENTAL DEATH BENEFIT contract instead of honest-to-goodness life insurance, then, no, they would not pay a claim for death caused by lung cancer. In an honest-to-goodness life policy, DEAD IS DEAD, and it doesn't matter how or why.
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