life insurance after a divorce

[joedis2000]

What is the name of your state? Rhode Island
After almost 10 years of marriage we divorced and agreed verbally that I would maintain and pay for the life insurance on my ex-spouse because I had a policy through my employer that was very inexpensive to keep. Unfortunately, my last payment was received 3 days late and the policy lapsed. The Insurance Co. agreed to reinstate the policy - providing I update the medical on both my husband and me. My ex-husband agreed and told me to send him the form which I did. Now he's changed his mind and for 5 months I've been trying to get the insurance reinstated and he's refusing. There isn't anything in the divorce settlement, this was a verbal agreement between us. We were married in 1984 and divorced in 1993. I've been paying on this from the time we were married and continued the payments after the divorce. How can I hold him accountable he moved to Florida and it's very hard to make contact with him. This costs him nothing and I can't believe he's putting me through this now after all these years.

 

[ALawyer]

I am somewhat confused.

What interest, if any, should he have in cooperating with you so YOU can continue to hold life insurance on HIS life (even though you pay for it) with YOU as the beneficiary, assuming of course, that you do not have any children together who would benefit from the policy? Is there is an ongoing obligation on his part to pay support, which obligation would end if he died, so that the insurance is a carryforward of that support? If not,i think you are out of luck.

If you had acquired the policy during your marriage, and were its owner, you had every right to maintain the policy, regardless of his consent, absent anything to the contrary in the divorce decree. In fact he had no say in the matter. If you failed to make payment, you lost that right. And he can choose to cooperate or not, in his discretion.

Most folks I know would not want an ex to maintain life insurance on them 10 years after the marriage ended.