Life insurance descendant exclusion

by wgwalsh » Fri May 21, 2010 04:59 pm

Man dies with will stating deliberately making no provisions for children to include language excluding them as descendants.

Man had life insurance policy naming wife as beneficiary. Wife dies thererafter, without updating beneficiary information.

The executor is granddaughter.

Where do monies go?

Total Comments: 4

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 02:46 am Post Subject:

OK, I looked at this sentence:

Man dies with will stating deliberately making no provisions for children to include language excluding them as descendants.



I think that means he disinherited his children. Is that right? I'll go with it. Next:

Man had life insurance policy naming wife as beneficiary. Wife dies thererafter, without updating beneficiary information.



"Wife dies thereafter." Thereafter what? After naming her as the beneficiary, or after he died, meaning he died first and THEN she died?

Regardless, I think you're asking who is now the beneficiary of the life insurance proceeds. If that's the case, it depends on the state you live in and the laws that apply in that state. As well, a person's will has no effect on a life insurance policy. Period. The life insurance contract alone governs the life insurance policy, including the distribution of proceeds.

So...I hope that I've answered what you were looking for. If I've misinterpreted anything, let me know.

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 07:32 am Post Subject:

I think it will go to the estate if the deceased doesn't have a trust. If anything is left after paying off the deceased's creditors, then the judge will choose someone. It all depends on the volume of the estate.

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 01:56 pm Post Subject:

I'm assuming that the wife died first. This would mean that the money goes to the contingent beneficiary. If contingent beneficiaries are named, it will go to them. If not, there may be a default beneficiary. A "default" beneficiary is what the contract says will happen if there is no named beneficiary.

It is possible that if the spouse is dead, the default may be the children. If the insured is not the owner, it may get paid to the owner of the policy. It may get paid to the estate.

Anyway, the only correct answer that can be given right now is "it depends."

As insurance teacher has pointed out, the will is irrelevant. It only becomes relevant if the money gets paid to the estate.

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 02:31 am Post Subject:

Most likely event is, the money is supposed to go to the estate of whomever died second if no secondary beneficiaries were nemed.

So if mom died first, then dad died there's no living beneficiary and proceeds go to his estate.

If dad died first, and mom never collected the money proceeds are most likely to be sent to her estate.

As has been hinted at, you'll then need to go through the probate process to get to the funds.

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