Change of beneficiary while nearing death

[Kathystruck]

Hello:

My story is very long and I will stick to the basics the best I can. I had been married for 24 years and my husband and I decided to apply for a transfer with his employer and while his number on the roster listed neard we decided to purchase a home in the new state. Knowing he would be transferred soon, I moved to the new home since our son, 23, was needing assistance. Two months later, after severe back pain, (as he had previous back surgery and nerve pain shots into the spinal area), my husband went to the doctor and after several tests was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given 3 - 6 months to live. In the meantime I had been diagnosed with a large ,melon size mass of the lower abdomen and was unable to work and basically homebown. He asked me to call him two days later after a talk with the doctors as to how they were planning on treating him. I called him two days later and he had been discharged, and I then proceeded to contact my family and later found out he was moved to Florida where his parents and sister lived, and he never contacted me or our son again. He did not receive all of the mail we sent him or phone calls and my mother in Michigan was upset with me because she couldn't understand why I wasn't trying to contact my husband. Somebody was keeping his mail from him in hopes to make him angry at me and 3 weeks before he passed away, (me and my son were not notified of his death either), a will was executed and his sister appointed administrator and beneficiary of his entire estate, his life insurance beneficiary, (which had been me for 24 years), was changed to his sister also. My son and myself both feel he was influenced and not in his right mind enough to understand what he was signing and even if he was, was not receiving our mail or calls and thought we didn't care about him. In the state of florida, and the insurance proceeds have already been paid out, (which I was contributing to), am I wasting my time in filing suit to my share of the life insurance policy? He has no estate and we do not understand why the sister is probating his will.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you.

 

[Dandy Don]

So sorry that you have to deal with this situation in the midst of grieving.

Have you already retained an attorney to handle this, and if so, what type of attorney did you get (business law, probate)? Has the lawsuit against the insurance company already been begun?

How much insurance money are we talking about here?

It is possible that there may be other assets that you don't know about and that could be why she decided to file the will for probate.

The situation you have described certainly does sound like undue influence and yes, you are correct in pursuing it. Your probate attorney needs to evaluate all of the facts to determine whether you should be (1) contesting the will or not, and (2) fighting the insurance company or whether you should be considering filing charges against sister-in-law for abuse of power of attorney (she probably got your husband to sign a power of attorney)--if she used this POA as a basis for changing the life insurance beneficiary designation or used it to get monies that she did not spend on his care, then this was illegal and that designation can be reversed back to you and she will have to pay the money back. If there is any way for your attorney to negotiate with the insurance company to get this matter resolved without a costly lawsuit (perhaps by asking the insurance company to ask sister-in-law to return the check that she got until the beneficiary question can be resolved), that would be better for you. No matter what happens, it looks like you are in a strong position to win.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])