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Can I contest life insurance after it's been paid?

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terminills

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? I'm in New York, the estate in question is in Connecticut.

My father passed away last December. He had a will leaving everything to myself and my sister (and my daughter). His will isn't done being probated if that makes a difference. Our Aunt was our fathers medical/legal Power of Attorney (this was a difficult time for us, and neither my sister or I felt comfortable having to make the decisions that would have been required if we were the POA, and we trusted our Aunt so .....) Our father had a life insurance policy thru his work. It hadn't been altered since it was written (we were minors when it was written, and we were listed as beneficiaries along with another one of our Aunts - like she would get it, but for us?) Our Aunt (the POA) found the policy and freaked out saying the policy would go to our other Aunt and asked our permission to change it - it was supposed to be changed to list us as the sole beneficiaries.

Fast Forward a few months, we find out that the policy was changed a few days before our dad passed (he died of cancer, and was heavily sedated, in and out of consciousness and in no shape to be making these kinds of decisions.) Our Aunt signed the policy over to herself, cashed the policy and when we asked about it we were told "too bad so sad - you get what's in the estate and that’s nothing" (She cleared his apt shortly after his death and took posession of everything she wanted)

So, I guess my question is this, is it really too bad so sad for us, or is there something we can do about it? If there is something we can do, where do we start? Neither of us are in the state. We don't know what to do, and were jerked around saying the policy was going to the estate (it wasn't) and feel pretty violated about the whole thing. Please help, even if it's just to tell us we're screwed.

Thanks
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
You will need to consult with a probate lawyer or business law attorney in Connecticut who can research the law to see if there are any laws in that state regarding abuse of power of attorney, which seems to be what happened here.

She is supposed to be using any monies she gets to help pay for his living expenses, not raiding the estate to keep monies for her own personal use, and she is supposed to be providing an accounting of how she spent the money. If it can be proven that she did abuse POA then she will have to repay the money she stole/misused. Many states do not permit a POA to be used to change beneficiary designations in wills or insurance policies.

What was the face value of the insurance policy and do you know the name and address of the insurance company that is applicable? Your attorney will need to examine the documents she submitted to the insurance company and also check father's medical records to determine if he was under influence of medications when he signed (IF he signed) any documents making changes.

If the insurance company had been on the ball, they probably shouldn't even have approved the submitted form if they had asked the appropriate questions.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

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