Legal Obligation of Life Insurance Beneficiary

[acultofpersonal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nebraska

I would like to know if I have any legal obligations to pay for things out of my share of life insurance proceeds after my father died?
I have every intention of helping to pay for his funeral and some medical debt he left behind; however I do not feel obligated to try to help pay for every debt he incurred. The executor of my father's estate wants all three of his other children to "surrender" our checks to him so he can pay bills with the money and tells me he'll sue us for our checks if we don't turn them over to him. Is this even possible?? The insurance benefits were divided by my dad when he designated the beneficiaries - the executor of the estate is my oldest brother. He claims we'll all have to agree on what bills get paid, but I do not agree to anything except the funeral, some medical debt and I want to make a donation to something my father would have cared about. The rest of the money that comes to me -I'd like to put into a savings account.
If I do that -can he sue me? And take what little money I will have left over?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nebraska

[Dandy Don]

The money is YOURS ALONE and you have no legal responsibility to pay any other debts, which are the responsibility of the estate if there are enough assets in it to pay anything. You can not be sued. The creditors will unfortunately have to remain unpaid and they will eventually write off the amounts as bad debts. Thank you for being kind enough to want to pay your father's funeral expenses.

[anteater]

Originally Posted by Dandy Don

... You can not be sued....

Of course, the OP and other siblings can be sued. Nothing stops the executor from doing silly things.

That says nothing about whether the executor can prevail.

[acultofpersonal]

Thank you gentlemen for replying to my original post question -I cannot tell you how much it helped having some kind of explanation about the legal right I have to my inheritance, which is very very small -it's not over 6,000 dollars for each of us four children.
I'd like to explain a little about this situation -not to bore anyone to tears here -but so you can understand why I am concerned about this.
My father was a wonderful man -he truly was. Our mother walked out on us when I was 7 years old and never looked back -our dad -raised all of us by himself with absolutely no support system whatsoever and he never complained once. He never spent a dime on himself -he was exceedingly generous -he'd give a stranger the shirt off his back if he thought it would help. I loved him -very very much. However, as great as all that sounds, he also had what i consider to be a pathological issue of wanting to be "needed" so he never tried to get one of his children in particular to acheive any type of independance. This sibling received a lot of monetary assistance from our dad most of his adult life - in fact, my dad had over 15,000 dollars in unsecured credit debt he took out to "help" this sibling and his wife and their kids -all of which are employed and over the age of 21. They just took the money - never tried to pay it back -and in fact, when our dad NEEDED them for something -i.e. - his HOUSE burned down -and he wanted to stay with THEM? They didn't let him stay for a WEEK before they KICKED HIM OUT of their house. He ended up calling my oldest brother in tears - needing somewhere to live. I would have taken him in in a heartbeat -but he avoided people that wanted to love him back -and do for him - he focused on those that treated him poorly.
My dad died - leaving a house -paid for - and debt. The oldest brother is the executor, he has been driving my dad's truck around for the last three months while my dad's social security direct deposit and pension deposits paid the truck payments. My dad was in the hospital for three days, and was never aware of the fact that two of my other brothers went into his house and cleaned it out. They threw away what they considered worthless, they took whatever else they wanted and they cleaned it for what they hoped would be a sale with profit of some sort.
My dad had lung cancer - but he was very strong -when they released him from the hospital, he wanted to go home -he didn't have a home to go to really. I wanted him to come live with me - I put together a room for him in my house - I told everyone -repeatedly -I wanted nothing for it - I just wanted dad to live out the rest of his days with people who loved him. My brothers fought me tooth and nail - because they wanted him in a nursing home or Hospice. They made sure -our dad -never came to live with me. THey put him in a nursing home -where he gave up the will to live - and then they transferred him to Hospice house where he died a few weeks later.
He left an unpaid vehicle -which needs to go back to the dealer, he left this huge credit debt which one sibling benefited from and was responsible for him having -and he's left some medical debt - what wasn't covered by medicare and another insurance company. I want to pay my share of the funeral and my share of his medical debt if there is much after the insurance is done, and I want to make a donation to something my dad said he wished he could have done when he was here. After that I feel absolutely NO obilgation to pay that huge credit debt he had - none whatsoever. And this is when my oldest brother told me we all had to "surrender" our checks to him -and if we refused - he would sue us for the money. Because he was responsible for paying Dad's debt. So that's why I asked - I have every intention of paying what i feel I should pay -I'm not a greedy person. I"m not going to get "Rich" off the 3,000 dollars that will be left over that I want to put in savings. So this is why I asked - sorry if that was too much to read. I apprecaite you listening to me. Thanks again.

[anteater]

Well, suggest to brother, the executor, that he have a 5 minute consultation with a probate/estate attorney before he starts running around threatening to sue people to recover life insurance benefits to pay the estate's bills.

Do what you feel is right. It is more than you are legally obligated to do.