No insur. beneficiary named, does this cancel the will?

[astroweeks]

Michigan

I am not sure if I should hire a lawyer or attempt to do this on my own. My mother died in April. In the will she left all of her estate to me, her youngest daughter. She named my brother the executor, but he died several years ago, and the executor position now falls to me.

My mom worked a job where her life insur. was to pay 1x her annual salary, which was less than $10,000. THe insur. company is telling me there is no named beneficiary on her policy, so they will distribute the payout equally among my 4 siblings and me. They said the will doesn't matter.

The funeral bill is only half paid, in order to pay it off, I would need more than the portion I would receive if the insurance company divides the money. Also, there are some unpaid bills she has (car lease) that I do not know what to do with. There is no "estate" to speak of, just the insurance and a few hundred dollars in her single checking account. Is it worth the cost of probate plus lawyer costs to get the lump sum sent to me? Should I just let the insurance company distribute it?

Thank you for any advice.

 

[Dandy Don]

That is a very irresponsible remark for the insurance company to make.

Send the insurance company a certified letter now, stating that you are going to be administrator of the estate and that they should follow legal procedure by making the check out to the ESTATE OF YOUR MOTHER'S NAME, and that if they make any other distributions that are later found to be illegal or incorrect, that they might have to face legal consequences to get the matter properly straightened out. If you have an attorney the letter might have more impact and they might take it more seriously if the letter was written on your behalf by your attorney on his letterhead stationery, and then they wouldn't so easily ignore your request if the letter only came from you.

This money technically now becomes part of the estate. Go to the county courthouse probate court and file to be administrator, and soon after filing you will receive a document called letters testamentary, which will legally authorize you to claim any and all assets. Then send a certified copy to the insurance company along with your request for payment.

Sure would make things easier if they would do things properly in the beginning and just send you the check so you wouldn't have to go through probate on this. If I were you I would try to discuss this with a higher-up supervisor or vice-president of the company to see if he could order them to act right.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

 

[anteater]

Question

Don't some insurance policies have a provision for distribution of the proceeds if there is no named beneficiary or if the named beneficiaries/contingent beneficiaries have predeceased?

For example:
1) Surviving spouse
2) Children
3) Parent(s)
4) The estate of the insured if none of the above have survived the insured.

 

[Dandy Don]

Yes, some companies do have the provision you have described, but each company is different and can set their own policy about this. Some companies don't pay out anything if the decedent did not name a beneficiary, so your family is lucky to be getting anything in this case. Do you have an actual copy of the policy so you can see what the fine print says?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

 

[anteater]

Yes, some companies do have the provision you have described, but each company is different and can set their own policy about this. Some companies don't pay out anything if the decedent did not name a beneficiary, so your family is lucky to be getting anything in this case. Do you have an actual copy of the policy so you can see what the fine print says?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

So, maybe the OP should contact the insurance company or her mother's employer to ask for a copy of the pokicy before firing off a leter to the insurance company demanding that they issue a check to the estate.