in need of help with stolen life ins policy

[forrest gump]

I live in the great state of Georgia. In 1994, I took out a life insurance policy on my father. My agent put the policy in my fathers name, in care of me. All of the information about the policy has been coming to my address until recently, including all of the annual statements. About a year later my brother and I agreed to split the cost of the premium so I added him as a beneficiary as well as myself. After 14 years of paying the premium and not receiving any help from my brother, I changed the beneficiary to me and my son in case something happened to me. I had to get my father's signature to do this because the policy was in his name. My brother found out about it and got my father to give him power of attorney over his affairs and he changed the beneficiary on the policy to himself. I have paid $383.00 a month for 15 years on a 100,000 dollar policy only to have it taken away just as my father is about to pass away. He has had lung cancer for a few years and has been given only a couple of weeks to live. I know my first mistake was not having this policy absolute assigned to me from day one but I never in my wildest dreams believed that my brother would ever try to pull this stunt. I've only seen my father about 20 times my entire life but he and my brother lived within 20 miles of each other and my father was afraid to change it back because he was in need of the help my brother was able to offer him. He was made to feel that if he changed it back, my brother would quit helping him. IS THERE ANY THING I CAN DO OR AM I SCREWED? It just seems to me that since I have the proof that I paid all of the money, that legally there would be something I could do to get my money back.

ps I have all of my bank statements from day 1 to prove that I paid every dime on this policy until I found out the beneficiary had been changed.

pss I thought that I owned this policy from day 1. Only after it was too late did I learn that I should have had this policy assigned to me to prevent this from happening. I know ignorance is no excuse, but that is all I have at this time!

[forrest gump]

Anyone with any ideas?

[Dandy Don]

How did you find out that the beneficiary designation change had been made?

In many states, it is against the law to use a power of attorney to change beneficiary designations, and the insurance company may or may not be aware of this. Have you notified the insurance company IN WRITING and by CERTIFIED MAIL (so there is proof of receipt) that you wish to protest this change? Would you be willing to let your attorney get a signed statement from your father to indicate that he didn't approve this change if in fact his signature is not on the change form?

Hire a business law attorney or an attorney who specializes in "bad faith insurance" cases to contact the insurance company on your behalf and also find out what your state law is regarding possible abuse of power of attorney.
The insurance company's rules and regulations/company policy may be different from what Georgia state law says, but hopefully your attorney can examine all the factors and help determine the right course of action.

In a perfect world the insurance company should agree with your decision to protest the change and hopefully will reverse the designation back to what it was originally.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

[forrest gump]

Thanks for the reply Don. My insurance agent informed me of the change. My brother went to the company directly and changed everything. I confronted my father about him giving my brother power of attorney. I told him that all he did was give him a license to steal. He and my brother are close and I know that my brother has told him things that are not true. I have showed my father the evidence of payment history on the policy but his reason for not changing it back is he is scared my brother will not "bring him any more soup and vegetables". I am not close with my father. I am just the fool who didn't know to have the ownership of this policy assigned to me from day one. All of the information was always mailed to me, addressed to my father, c/o me. I just assumed that I was the owner since I took the policy out and paid all of the premiums and all of the information came to me. I think that a jury of 12 people would see it my way, but I have to have a legal reason to get it into court. I think it is fraud but I don't know how to prove it. I need that one reason that an attorney could jump on to open the door for me.

[forrest gump]

does anyone else have any suggestions?

[Dandy Don]

You should at least be talking to a family law attorney to see whether you or anyone else would need to acquire conservatorship over your father which would then give the conservator power to handle all of his finances and get the father to cancel the POA given to the son, or a business law attorney could research the law to see if your state has laws on the books against abuse of POA--most states do not permit a POA to be able to change beneficiary designations with insurance companies. If you don't act soon, your window of opportunity will be closing if your father were to die suddenly. If your father is also afraid of his son, this could be considered as elderly financial abuse on the part of the son. If I were you I would get the business law attorney so you can get the POA voided and you can legally persuade the insurance company that the beneficiary change was done illegally and get it reversed back to you being named beneficiary, with or without your father's approval.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

[forrest gump]

Thanks Dandy Don. I have an appointment tomorrow at 3 p.m. I will post back and let everyone know what he says. I hope I've already educated some folks about life insurance policies. I just hate it looks like it is going to cost me a couple of hundred thousand to get my education!

[Kiawah]

What does your brother say when you show him all of the canceled checks for the payments you have been making for all of these years?

[ShyCat]

Originally Posted by Kiawah

What does your brother say when you show him all of the canceled checks for the payments you have been making for all of these years?

"Thanks for paying for Dad's life insurance policy! Great gift idea!"