insurance and spouse as beneficiary

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

My FIL was involved in a bigamous marriage at the time of his death. My husband (son) is taking it to probate and will be the executor.

There are insurance policies that require that either the wife be the beneficiary or that the wife sign off her rights. My MIL had not signed off her rights. FIL listed his non-wife as his wife and at this point she stands to get the proceeds from the insurances. Do any of you think my MIL has a chance in fighting for her rights to this insurance?

Also the non-wife has applied for his military retirement and for his Social Security benefits. What might we expect with these? Legally my MIL should be entitled to these... they have been married 53 years.

By the way, don't feel too sorry for the non-wife. She entered into this arrangement with her eyes wide open. She and he just thought that they could deny my MIL a divorce settlement and not pay child support, etc, by running and hiding and pretending to be married. From what I understand they have a marriage cert from another country. She even assumed the name and birth day/month of his eldest daughter to facilitate getting military benefits, etc.

She is most likely here in the USA illegally due to the using a false name and a non-marraige as part of the immigration considerations.

Also .... my husband realizes that the non-wife does have some rights... such as to property where she is listed as joint tenant...

Here's a link to my first thread on the probate of my FIL's estate
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=416906

Your son should be contacting the insurance companies to let them know he is protesting the payout on the policies because of the bigamous nature of the marriage so that the insurance company will not pay the incorrect party. He should also be contacting the military retirement and Social Security to inform them of the same thing.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Dandy Don said:

Your son should be contacting the insurance companies to let them know he is protesting the payout on the policies because of the bigamous nature of the marriage so that the insurance company will not pay the incorrect party. He should also be contacting the military retirement and Social Security to inform them of the same thing.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

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MIL went to SS today and filed for that. She gave them the proof that she is the spouse. They told her that if and when the non-wife goes to file for benefits she would be in a lot of trouble legally. I imagine that she will be doing this soon as his checks were cut off when he died.

MIL has an appointment with the veteran's affairs for military retirement. We'll see how that one goes.

I suppose my MIL will need to send official death certs when she contacts the insurance companies. I'm doing a lot of the busy work for her so I'll get on that right away.

Now more .....

FIL had credit cards with his non-wife. We think that his name needs to be removed from them now. So we'll be sending info for them to remove him from the account. Might the credit card companies than demand payment from his estate? What obligation does non-wife have to pay for them?

(calling her non-wife 'cause I don't want to use her name and don't know what to call her. Sry if it seems tacky... but there is much tacky about his case anyway.)

They (my husband and his mom) want to send in change of address to all of his fathers' addresses (at his home and some mail boxes). This so that they can deal with closing out his affairs. Can my MIL do this simply because she is the wife? Or does it have to be done by my husband who is filing as the executor?

My MIL does have a power of attorney that he signed in the 1970s giving her total authority over his affairs to include to handle his estate upon his death. It was a standard form that the military used when the guys went to Vietnam. We are not sure if it is valid.... but he has never canceled/recended it either. It has no expiration date on it. We're wondering if she can use it for things like changing the mailing addresses?

The attorney will, of course, be doing a full discovery requesting that his non-wife turn over any financial/asset/debt info fo his that they know of.

By the way Dan.... thanks a lot for your help here.

If you know where his bank accounts are you need to be checking to see if the estate can claim it now if the non-wife's name is not on the account as joint co-owner.

Dandy Don said:

If you know where his bank accounts are you need to be checking to see if the estate can claim it now if the non-wife's name is not on the account as joint co-owner.

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We know where at least a couple of bank accounts are as are getting all the letters ready to send out.


We are also getting copies of his credit reports, etc. These should help quite a bit. We'll shut down all of his accounts, etc.

The attorney is establishing my husband as the exectuor. There might be a fight to establish my MIL as the wife. We'll see how that's going to go next week. She's so timid about just putting her foot down and acting like the wife. She has a marriage certificate, there has never been a divorce. she has legal papers he's signed over the years (such as releasing his claim to her retirement as the spouse) etc. But she's just timid.

Why wait for letters to be sent out? You should be calling or visiting the banks directly to claim the money if you have a certified copy of your letters testamentary to present to each bank. If you wait too long non-wife might try to claim these monies herself.