life insurance and estate

[Woodill]

my husband's father recently died (his residency was in florida) a week before he was to sign divorce papers. the soon to be ex -wife already received 50% of his retirement money as part of the divorce and there was a post-nuptial agreement that she had no claim on his future estate. there seem to be two life insurance policies with her as the beneficiary (250,000 each). Is life insurance part of the estate? Do his children have any claim to the life insurance (he told his children they were beneficiaries to one of the policies) if they are the heirs to his estate. we don't think there was a will, so nothing is very clear. pleas help. Thanks
Maureen

 

[advisor10]

1-14-2002

DEAR WOODILL:

So sorry about this unfortunate set of circumstances. Life insurance is NOT considered as part of the estate, so the children have no claim to any part of that.

It's hard to understand why your father did not understand the importance of having a will, which would have spelled out exactly what they could receive.

I'm guessing that you all probably don't have access to a copy of the insurance policies (or at least the names and addresses of the insurance companies), since the soon-to-be-ex wife probably knows where all the important papers are if she was living with him. If you DO know how to contact the insurance companies, you at least need to check with them to find out whether it is true that the children were named as beneficiaries on any policy, or whether they were named as alternate/secondary beneficiaries, or whether he possibly might have updated/changed the beneficiary designation.

As it stands now, will the children receive anything from this estate?

Are there any other assets in his estate?

Who is going to be the administrator/executor of this estate?

You need to seriously consider consulting with or hiring a local probate attorney to find out whether or not you would need to file a petition to "force" this lady to produce a will (if she has one or knows where it is), and if you would need to contact her by letter to have her provide you with information on the companies who are holding the insurance policies (so you can check on your status as beneficiaries).

Looks like the children will be splitting whatever estate is left with this lady, but I am not sure whether or not her status as a potential divorcee will affect her share of the estate.


SINCERELY,

advisor