Beneficiary changed

[allisonmarr]

Minnesota (MN)
My father just recently passed due to a heart attack at age 67.
He had a wife of 7 years, his 5th wife. He did leave a will and it named her as executor. His will has nothing of concern. However, there is a million dollar life in. policy he told me many years ago that he was leaving to me and my 3 children (I am the only living child with grandchildren due to losing my brother in a fatal helicopter accident 10 years ago.)
I just talked with her (his most current wife) and she informed me that there was a life insurance policy, but due to his health, he was not able to obtain another ins. policy. Therefore she had him put THIS said policy (that I was always the beneficiary on) as her being the beneficiary on.
Is there anything that I can do? I had ALWAYS considered her a gold digger. She had a previous husband, who also died. Furthermore, in the last years of his life, she had put a distance between my father and me. Don't know if that plays into anything or not?
Really need some advise.
Thanks - Allison

 

[Zigner]

Minnesota (MN)
My father just recently passed due to a heart attack at age 67.
He had a wife of 7 years, his 5th wife. He did leave a will and it named her as executor. His will has nothing of concern. However, there is a million dollar life in. policy he told me many years ago that he was leaving to me and my 3 children (I am the only living child with grandchildren due to losing my brother in a fatal helicopter accident 10 years ago.)
I just talked with her (his most current wife) and she informed me that there was a life insurance policy, but due to his health, he was not able to obtain another ins. policy. Therefore she had him put THIS said policy (that I was always the beneficiary on) as her being the beneficiary on.
Is there anything that I can do? I had ALWAYS considered her a gold digger. She had a previous husband, who also died. Furthermore, in the last years of his life, she had put a distance between my father and me. Don't know if that plays into anything or not?
Really need some advise.
Thanks - Allison

I'm sorry about your father.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the life insurance proceeds will go to his widow.

 

[Betty]

Agree. Life ins. passes outside of the estate & goes to the beneficiary named in the policy to do with as they wish. The ins. co. will pay the policy proceeds to the most recent beneficiary they have on record which seems to be his most recent wife. If your father changed the beneficiary to her, she is entitled to the money.

You have my sympathy on the death of your father.

 

[allisonmarr]

Beneficiary on Life Insurance Policy

I have been doing much pondering, as you can well imagine. And have also been in contact with numerous people (some business associates, some friends and some past female involvements) who have known my father for MANY years. Every one of them had indicated that they KNOW that was never my fathers intention to leave me off of the insurance policy. He had always taken care of his kids. (I'm the only child left, my brother died 10 years ago)

Question: Is it possible she forged his name on a document which would have changed her as the beneficiary and how can I obtain this document?

Again, my father had told me on numerous occasions that he was going to leave all of their assets (homes, cars, bank accounts, and 1/2 of his business, which in the end didn't amount to much due to the liabilities) to her so she would be taken care of in that way. And the life insurance policy of $1 million dollars was to go to me, my husband and 3 children (his only grandchilden).

Please advise, need some direction. Thank you!

 

[CourtClerk]

I have been doing much pondering, as you can well imagine. And have also been in contact with numerous people (some business associates, some friends and some past female involvements) who have known my father for MANY years. Every one of them had indicated that they KNOW that was never my fathers intention to leave me off of the insurance policy. He had always taken care of his kids. (I'm the only child left, my brother died 10 years ago)

Question: Is it possible she forged his name on a document which would have changed her as the beneficiary and how can I obtain this document?

Again, my father had told me on numerous occasions that he was going to leave all of their assets (homes, cars, bank accounts, and 1/2 of his business, which in the end didn't amount to much due to the liabilities) to her so she would be taken care of in that way. And the life insurance policy of $1 million dollars was to go to me, my husband and 3 children (his only grandchilden).

Please advise, need some direction. Thank you!

You're accusing her of being a gold digger... but you're sounding like one yourself. Your father left his money to his wife. Best thing you can do is get over it and get on with life.

Sorry about the loss of your father, but he owed you nothing.

 

[allisonmarr]

However, if that was indeed his intentions to leave me what HE wished, and she saw to it differently and has committed fraud, why in the world would I not be in the right to research this?

Let me inform you of money. My husband and I have enough money due to a 6 million dollar company we built from ground up and currently run. My father built a company with my, now deceased brother, to which this insurance policy was a part of. This goes MUCH deeper than money. It's a matter of being voilated, and haven something stollen from you. It's a matter of disgracing my father's wishes and HIS intent. How in the world would that make me as a gold digger?

And are you trying to tell me that you wouldn't investigate something that didn't quite add up?

Thanks for your input, but I disagree and NO I won't GET OVER IT - I will GET TO THE BOTTOM of it!

 

[Betty]

If you believe there might have been fraud involved, talk to a lawyer. There is no more we can tell you.

 

[Betty]

Adding to my above post, I worked for an ins. co. & when a bene change form is received, signatures are verified (the signature on the change form with the signature on the original application). They are again verified before the policy proceeds are paid out when there had been a change in the original bene. Also, if you believe your father might have changed the bene but was not competent at the time due to his health, you will need medical records/dr. reports to prove that.

Talk to a lawyer if you wish to pursue.

 

[Betty]

I also just want to tell you this. You asked how you could get a copy of the bene change form/document. The ins. co. will not give this to you - you would have to get a lawyer involved. They will only give a copy to the insured (father-now deceased) and/or the owner of the policy if different than the insured. I doubt you are the owner - you would have had to sign as owner when the ins. was taken out.

 

[allisonmarr]

I agree that I'm not the owner, my father was the owner of the policy. But he had informed me of this policy and I was the beneficiary of this policy. This is what is not making any sense to me. There was no reason he would have removed me as the beneficiary, especially since he told me about this many times, and it was always the same. I had no reason to ask for any information about the insurance company or anything due to our conversations.
His wife refuses to talk to me, and has had the legal papers regarding his Will and business information forwarded to me, which I am named as . I had requested to be at the reading of the will, and that did not happen. However, in the legal papers, the information regarding the life ins. is not present, and it's just mentioned in the cover letter that she was renamed as the beneficiary and is not part of the estate. I understand all of that and what that means. I also have been in contact with my lawyers (who my husband and I have used for many years now) and started the process.
I have my fathers SS# and date of birth, but need to find out who the company was who held the life insurance policy, at which point we can then obtain these documents.
Here's my question: Is there any way to obtain this information that I'm not aware of? Has anyone been through or know of another situation such as mine?

 

[Betty]

Let your lawyer help you with all the questions you might have. Let the lawyer help you find out the name of the ins. co. There are ways this can be done - in your case a lawyer's assistance will be helpful/may be required. That's what you're paying the lawyer for.

 

[allisonmarr]

Yes, I had given the lawyers his SS# and DOB, but they still need the insurance company the policy was through. Nothing pulled up with the info. given.

I also have been in contact with the lawyer who's handling my father's will/estate, who's also representing my father's wife. They were VERY helpful, but my father's wife will not provide a copy of the change of beneficiary, nor the information regarding his life insurance (i.e. company, policy info. etc.)

My concern is the time it takes to find this needed information, the policy will have been paid out. If I can make claim "before", then the courts hold the money until it is resolved. I've been in contact with the "Commissioner's Office" and they also need the name of the Ins. Co. to file a complaint.

You would think that if everything was legit, there would be no problem with me obtaining a copy of the beneficiary change. I am listed as a Trustee on the Will, but since the Life Ins. policy is not a part of the Will, I don't know if I have any legal right there? Do I have any legal right to view these documents being I'm his daughter and was a beneficiary at one point in time?

 

[Betty]

Since you knew your father had a large life ins. policy with you as the beneficiary - you really should have asked him the name of the ins. co. That way if you believed you were the bene, you could have submitted a claim for the policy proceeds when he passed away.

There are ways to try & find out the name of the co. but it might be hard in your case since you don't seem to have access to the info you need or don't know the info you need. -- such as his financial papers which might have listed an ins. co., his ins. broker for car/homeowners ins. might have been broker/agt who policy was issued through, family/friends he might have mentioned the co. to . . . . You/your lawyer are just going to have to continue to do detective work.

If you find out the name of the co., they probably will not give you a copy of the bene change form just for the asking (we wouldn't at the co. I worked for) unless this ends up going to court - then it most likely will have to be produced.

If the ins. co. pays the proceeds to the wife before you find out the name of the co. & can protest payment, then you would have to sue the wife for the money if you believe fraud involved.

 

[Dandy Don]

(1) Is it possible that he actually did change the beneficiary from your name to hers because he might have realized that otherwise he didn’t have much of an estate and instead wanted to provide a substantial estate for his wife?

(2) What is the estimated total value of the assets being probated (the homes, the cars, bank accounts, and the ½ of the business)?

(3) What is the total amount of debt?

(4) Is the will being officially probated in court or not?

(5) What is the legal specialty (what area of law) of the attorneys that you are using—the ones you say you have been using for years? If they have no expertise in probate law, then they are outside the needed area of expertise and their advice can’t do you much good—you should be consulting with a probate attorney if the will is being submitted to probate court.

I’m not sure but I am wondering whether or not the insurance company might possibly give a copy of the beneficiary designation form to the executor of the estate if the executor asks them for it. The executor has legal authority to request information on most, if not all, financial documents in regard to the decedent’s estate. Even if it turns out that they won’t release it to the executor, when your attorney initiates an interpleader suit with the insurance company (where he asks the insurance company to let the courts determine who is entitled to the money) or instead will be filing a separate civil lawsuit against the spouse for forgery/fraud, at some point during the discovery process the surviving spouse will be asked to provide the information about the insurance company, so that aspect is something that you don’t need to be particularly concerned about right now until you have retained your own attorney. Additionally, you could pay a $75 fee to MIB to have a policy search done through the top 400 insurance companies in US (but the search could take about 2-3 months to complete) and/or also order copies of your father’s monthly bank account statements for the past 2-3 years to see if he was paying monthly premiums to the insurance company. YOU NEED TO FIND YOUR OWN ATTORNEY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO THAT HE CAN NOTIFY THE INSURANCE COMPANY THAT HE INTENDS TO FILE AN INTERPLEADER ACTION TO PROTEST THE VALIDITY OF THE BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION FORM, so that the company will not automatically make a payout to the surviving spouse. This is a special area of the law known as “BAD FAITH INSURANCE”, so you need an attorney who has particular experience with interpleader actions or benefit disputes involving life insurance, OR a business law attorney. Please also check their credentials with the state bar association website to make sure you are not hiring someone with a background of criminal charges or a violation of ethics.

(6) Do you know any circumstances about how or when he may have purchased the policy, perhaps through his place of employment or would he have purchased it on his own, privately? Just wondering.

It’s uncertain from your posting whether or not you were implying that she had anything to do with your father’s death. If I were you, I would have a background check done on her through a private investigator to see if there is a criminal history or not. Also order a copy of her previous husband’s death certificate, obituary notice from the newspaper (to see if there is any indication as to whether there was possibly any mention of questionable circumstances regarding his death), and look at his probate file to see how his estate was handled.

I believe that your suspicions about her are valid and that you are right to fight this, and that it will probably come down to a battle of the penmanship experts in court, who will try to determine if the signature and THE other handwriting on the beneficiary designation form looks genuine or not! What a shame that many people do not realize that multiple beneficiaries can be named on a policy, and if he had wanted to, he could have designated both you AND his spouse to split this money.

(NOTE TO BETTY: Thank you so much for your helpful and knowledgeable responses to this message board. They help us understand the policies and procedures of how insurance companies operate.)


DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

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[allisonmarr]

THANK YOU so much for your reply and expertise!

The lawyers we are using right now are from this particular law firm we have used for years. They have a specific department that this has been handed over to, with our usual laywer overseeing everything. I'm also the type of person who does A LOT of research on my own to, I guess, help me out with the direction I'm heading in.

I did end up getting the life ins. co. name: MetLife. I called them to lookup his policy and they said they didn't have any record of this. The law firm also did this, but they were told that it's possible that it's with an "affiliate" of MetLife and ran it through the affiliate companies.

My father's wife was named as executor on the will and I was named as Trustee. However, the life ins. is not part of the estate and is handled separately. I knew most of my father's business associates and friends and have a good relationship with them. In which I have been in contact with MANY of them to gather information. I have someone looking into an old Peachtree program for paid insurance premiums and have the name of the CPA he used. Maybe they can be of some help. Being I'm the Trustee, do I have the legal right to bank statements and other documents?

Yes, time is of the essence. It's the best case senario for me to stop the payment from the life ins. co. and deal with this in a legal manner.

My father was a very intelligent man. And I also agree with the dual beneficiaries. Which is why I think something is quite wrong. She told me he tried to obtain another ins. policy and couldn't. That tells me if this is true, he would have the intentions of me being the bene. of the 1st policy. And that certainly would have been possible that he would have us a dual bene's, which you think that the ins. rep. would have suggested this. The will is set up with me being 51% owner of the businesses, why wouldn't the ins. be the same? Doesn't make sense. Also, why does she feel it necessary to inform everyone (my uncles, the lawyer's handeling the estate) that he tried to get another policy, couldn't and changed the bene. to her? It's as if she's trying to convince everyone that this is true, and to back her.

I certainly will do the checking you referred to in regards to her past. And "yes", I do think she had something to do with it. She insisted that I go see the body the next day because she was having him creamated as soon as possible. Didn't even cross my mind at that time as to something being wierd there. He had a history of heart issues and I was told it was a heart attack, but no autopsy was performed (darn). Of course it was all by her telling me.

Again, that you all so much for insights and feedback. This is something I really don't want to be dealing with right now, but am forced to. It changes the way a person grieves and is time consuming.

Allison