Can surviving spouse contest a beneficiary on annuity?

[mronda67]

I am in New York.

My aunt's husband (now deceased) named two beneficiaries on an annuity; the first - who was my uncle's brother-in-law - is deceased and the second is the surviving daughter of the first beneficiary. I understand that legally the annuity will now pass to the second beneficiary.

My aunt's husband basically left my aunt nothing except the home she lives in; she is elderly and survivies on social security but she didn't even have enough money to bury her husband when he passed. He was a spiteful man and despite my aunt's 53 years as his loyal wife he stuck it to her from the grave.

Complicating matters is that my aunt and the beneficiary are not on good terms and despite my attempts to mediate and get the beneficiary to give her some money, I've come up against many decades of family tensions and have reached an impasse.

Is there any way for my aunt to contest the beneficiary on the annuity or at least make some claim to this account? If this were chump change, we would not bother, but the account is worth $112,000 and I would love to see her get SOMETHING for her trouble with this jerk for 50+ years.

 

[seniorjudge]

You can hire a lawyer to evaluate the case; I can't give you much hope. Beneficiary designations are pretty much set in stone.

 

[nextwife]

In some states, the spouse may have a marital property interest in assets acquired DURING the marriage. A spouse cannot will away all the marital assets and leave their spouse penniless. Her rights would depend on whether the annuity is comprised of marital assets.

If the annuity was premarital, she may not have any basis to contest, but if the annuity was comprised of marital funds, or was an IRA or 401K rollover of retirement moneys accrued during the marriage, she may have a basis to contest the naming of a non-spouse. I know my 401K plan requires my spouses consent to name any non-spouse as beneficiary.

She needs an attorney.

 

[mronda67]

marital property interest

Thanks for the feedback so far. My aunt told me before I started this quest that she had made contributions to the account in question, but I doubt she'd have any paper trail to prove such a thing.

He did create the annuity while they were married (not before) and she said that once upon a time he had a will naming her as beneficiary to everything but years of dysfunction later he destroyed the will and changed the annuity to be in trust for the now-deceased brother-in-law with the BIL daughter as 2nd beneficiary.

I think the advice to seek a lawyer might be the best although I have a nagging sense that the first response (that beneficiaries are set in stone) is what we will discover. I don't want to spend money she doesn't have to get to the bottom of this but perhaps that is the best strategy.

Thanks again.

 

[StuckOnStupid]

mronda67, don't bother going to a lawyer.

You will be wasting your time, effort and money.

Life Insurance and Annuity beneficiary designations are SUPERIOR. They cannot be defeated by Will or Trust or any other legal process. Unless you can prove some sort of fraud, undue influence or exploitation of the ederly your aunt will NEVER prevail.

Additionally from your post you state:

"My aunt's husband (now deceased) named two beneficiaries on an annuity; the first - who was my uncle's brother-in-law - is deceased and the second [beneficairy] is the surviving daughter of the first beneficiary. I understand that legally the annuity will now pass to the second beneficiary."

How on Earth would you ever prove a "contigent beneficairy" exerted some type of fraud, undue influence or exploitation of the ederly and then had themselves named as a remote beneficiary so just in case everybody dies in the right order AND the Uncle Owner of the contract doesn't make any changes she'll get the money?

This is a dead issue.