Husband left hanging

[liveoak]

State of Virginia. My brother's wife died recently from terminal cancer(level four) which she had known about for over one year and kept it from her husband until it could no longer be hidden. Following her death, my brother(62 yrs) finds that she had stopped making paymens on his term life insurance a couple of years ago; which was to be his retirment. She also cancelled her life insurance policy even after she knew of the cancer. Since my brother is on the road most of the time as a truck driver, his wife took care of paying all the bills, or so he thought. Turns out she had not been paying any bills ( with few exceptions) and now he is facing back taxes, etc. but most crushing is that he has no retirement income which he had paid into for 15 plus years.
The question is: is there any presedent that would suggest that he could approach the insurance company on grounds that his wife was metally unstable or irrational and somehow get his life insusrance policy reinstated even if he had to make up the past due payments??What is the name of your state?

 

[anteater]

. Following her death, my brother(62 yrs) finds that she had stopped making paymens on his term life insurance a couple of years ago; which was to be his retirment.

Was he the insured on this term life policy? Term life policies do not have cash values. They are pure death benefit. I don't understand how this could be "his retirement."

Maybe someone can figure an angle, but I doubt that an after the fact argument that she was unstable/irrational will get him very far.

 

[kNOwtheLAW]

[..] my brother(62 yrs) finds that she had stopped making paymens on his term life insurance a couple of years ago; which was to be his retirment.

If what you posted is true you may have caught your brother in a big WHOPPER. . . Your brother is quite possibly feeding you a line of B.S., and we're not talking about a college degree here.

As anteater correctly pointed out, "Term life policies do not have cash values. They are pure death benefit."

The premium for a term life policy is much lower when you're younger and very expensive when you're older. If your brother would have passed away when he was younger (and the policy was in force) his beneficiary (probably his wife) would have received the death benefit proceeds. Likewise, if his wife would have passed away with the policy in force, her beneficiary would have received the death benefit proceeds. What likely happened was the premiums became outrageously expensive as they both matured in later years.

It would not make much sense to go back to the insurance company to pay back payments in order to reinstate the policy. Why? He has not died in these months or years since the policy has lapsed. If he wants life insurance (and can qualify medically) he can simply purchase a new policy as of today! Why would he pay back premiums for the time that elapsed when he knows he hasn't died?

On the other hand, if he had an insurance policy that provided some form of cash value build up, it's pretty hard for those policies to just lapse, especially if there are dividends in the policy. The accumulated dividends could easily support unpaid premiums for a time. But, this type of insurance is not term insurance. If this is the type of insurance he had it might pay to contact the insurance company. However, if his wife physically cancelled the insurance policies (as opposed to letting them lapse by not paying the premium) she would have received a check for the cash value at that time of cancellation.

My guess, based on the OP, is he had the term insurance. A product that is fine for paying off a mortgage if you happen to predecease the mortgage term, but lousy for retirement as you personally cannot collect the death benefit proceeds.

KTL

 

[Betty]

Yep - if he still wants/has a need for life ins. coverage, he will have to apply for a complete new policy & hope he qualifies medically. Premiums will be at his current age.

 

[moburkes]

State of Virginia. My brother's wife died recently from terminal cancer(level four) which she had known about for over one year and kept it from her husband until it could no longer be hidden. Following her death, my brother(62 yrs) finds that she had stopped making paymens on his term life insurance a couple of years ago; which was to be his retirment. She also cancelled her life insurance policy even after she knew of the cancer. Since my brother is on the road most of the time as a truck driver, his wife took care of paying all the bills, or so he thought. Turns out she had not been paying any bills ( with few exceptions) and now he is facing back taxes, etc. but most crushing is that he has no retirement income which he had paid into for 15 plus years.
The question is: is there any presedent that would suggest that he could approach the insurance company on grounds that his wife was metally unstable or irrational and somehow get his life insusrance policy reinstated even if he had to make up the past due payments??What is the name of your state?

You two saw this differently than I did. Obviously, something is wrong with this picture. I took it to me that HER policy proceeds was his retirement money! Then, I read both responses in regards to the TERM part, which I totally missed. However, even if the policy was a cash benefits policy, unless the amount of insurance was HUGE with HUGE payments, there would never have been enough money to finance a retirement in the cash part of the policy.