Hello -
We live in Wisconsin. My mother in law passed away about a month ago. When making funeral arrangements, the funeral home said they could place a claim against the $25,000 policy she had to pay for the funeral and then disburse the rest of the money. Relieved, we agreed, as we did not have the $10,000 for the funeral. The funeral home made the claim and said it would take a week or two to find out exactly who the beneficiaries are (there are 4 children and original husband died many years ago). We recently found out that the mother in law left her ex husband as sole beneficiary. Policy was started in 1996 and divorce was in 1998.
According to divorce decree, all life insurance is mother in laws. We have been told the insurance company is making good faith attempts to contact her ex who has spent years living "off the grid" as I think he may have financial problems he tries to avoid. I don't understand why he needs to be contacted, as the decree states it isn't going to be his money anyway. Both the funeral home as well as the lawyer we retained said we should try to contact the ex but I am skeptical.
My wife and I are currently on the hook to pay for the funeral. We are fairly certain the ex will create a stink if he believes he is entitled money and would rather not contact him but can probably do so if necessary. Is it in our best interest to contact him? We really just want to make sure the funeral is paid for but also feel he doesn't deserve a dime.
If we don't contact him, how long does the insurance company try to contact beneficiary before crediting mother in law's estate?
Thank you for your time
We live in Wisconsin. My mother in law passed away about a month ago. When making funeral arrangements, the funeral home said they could place a claim against the $25,000 policy she had to pay for the funeral and then disburse the rest of the money. Relieved, we agreed, as we did not have the $10,000 for the funeral. The funeral home made the claim and said it would take a week or two to find out exactly who the beneficiaries are (there are 4 children and original husband died many years ago). We recently found out that the mother in law left her ex husband as sole beneficiary. Policy was started in 1996 and divorce was in 1998.
According to divorce decree, all life insurance is mother in laws. We have been told the insurance company is making good faith attempts to contact her ex who has spent years living "off the grid" as I think he may have financial problems he tries to avoid. I don't understand why he needs to be contacted, as the decree states it isn't going to be his money anyway. Both the funeral home as well as the lawyer we retained said we should try to contact the ex but I am skeptical.
My wife and I are currently on the hook to pay for the funeral. We are fairly certain the ex will create a stink if he believes he is entitled money and would rather not contact him but can probably do so if necessary. Is it in our best interest to contact him? We really just want to make sure the funeral is paid for but also feel he doesn't deserve a dime.
If we don't contact him, how long does the insurance company try to contact beneficiary before crediting mother in law's estate?
Thank you for your time