life insurance/beneficiary

[angela townsend]

my brother passed away 3/13/01, he had life insurance
thru his employer and named my mother as beneficiary..
my mother passed away 2 years ago, my brother never married
but has a 19 year old daughter, he also had a pension and
bank accounts in which mother is also the beneficiary..
we (his brothers and sisters) paid all the funeral expenses
we are not sure how to handle this situation since there was no will as he passed on unexpectedly, he lived in the
state of louisiana..will everything automatically go to
his daughter? any advice will be appreciated

thank you
angela

 

[ALawyer]

I do not know Louisiana law, but in all states I know of, where there is no Will, all an unmarried person's property in his own name would go to his estate and then pass under the laws of intestacy to his or her child or children at death. And the fact the child's partents were not married is not relevant, unless (in most states) the child was adopted by someone else.

The same is true with lapsed beneficiary designations, where there is no contingent beneficiary named. Depending on the specifics of the policy itself, the proceeds normally go to the estate, NOT the heirs of the deceased beneficiary.

In terms of the expenses you paid on behalf of the estate, such as for the funeral, there probably would be a right to reimbursements from the estate.