My father died 6 years ago. I was 21 at the time. My mother was remarried. I found out she collected life insurance on him, but she never told me. I found out and I’m very upset! How can she collect life insurance on him when her children are older than 18?
Obviously she was his beneficiary, but I know my father would not have wanted the money to go to her-as they did not get along very well…
I just think it’s extremely shady and it makes me very angry!
Obviously she was his beneficiary, but I know my father would not have wanted the money to go to her-as they did not get along very well…
I just think it’s extremely shady and it makes me very angry!
Home | Insurance | Blog article: Is it possible for my mother to collect life insurance on her ex husband?
car253 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
Your father just forgot to change the beneficiary. He probly even forgot he had the policy.
Life sometimes is not fair. Remind people to keep their life insurance beneficiaries up to date and review their policies once at year or more.
pearl_hoff 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
she must have been his beneficiary
Lisa A 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
The named beneficiary gets the life insurance payout, no matter how deserving or not you or anyone else thinks they are, no matter what relatives they have or the ages of those relatives. (Unless of course the beneficiary murdered the insured. Then the policy won’t pay out.)
Terry 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
like the first writer responded she would have to be the beneficiary on the policy and if she was i believe it was legal
rtfm 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
Life insurance goes to whoever the owner of the policy has named as their beneficiary. It has nothing to do with whether there are any children or how old they are. The person who buys the insurance decides who the money goes to when they die.
mbrcatz 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
Life insurance will pay the named beneficiary ONLY. It’s not something you can put dibs on, or collect, or claim. Only the named beneficiary can collect. PERIOD. Whoever owns the policy, gets to pick the beneficiary.
It has nothing to do with marriage or children or anything. It’s a contract.
butchcado 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
I think that it all depends on who was named beneficiary on his insurance policy. In this case, it must have been her.
ieguy 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
This happens WAY too frequently. I’ve seen it. The problem is that the policy owner doesn’t remember to change the beneficiary after there has been a change in life circumstances. That means – ex spouses get the money that the current spouse and family could use; now-hated relatives get it, etc.
The answer is: Whenever you have a life change; divorce or whatever, IF (and it’s the policy owner’s choice) you no longer want the original beneficiary to get the death benefit — call the insurance company and find out what procedure is necessary to change the beneficiary. Usually, it’s something as simple as filling out a Change of Beneficiary form.
Your father may not have wanted her to get the money, but he apparently didn’t think to Change the Beneficiary. In that case, you can basically just suck it up and realize there isn’t a thing you can do about it. But you can also make sure in your own life that you never leave your family in a similar position – Change that Beneficiary if you have to and do it immediately after you make the decision to do so.
jlf 1:01 am on February 9, 2010
It doesn’t matter what you think is "fair." The named beneficiary on the policy collects. That’s how insurance works. If your father wanted the proceeds to go to others, it was his responsibility to change the beneficiary.
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