suicide/life insurance

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

my concern is because so far everything she has said has been a lie, and I never knew you could collect on a policy if the person was killed/committed suicide.

so really, the money should go to the estate or be held until further findings.

My response:

No, no, no.

You're right about "suicide" but not if he was "killed". If he was killed, then the policy would pay to the beneficiary - - which leads me to my next point.

That money, when paid, would NEVER have gone into his estate. If it gets paid, it gets paid to the beneficiary ONLY and bypasses the Estate altogether.

So, you would never have seen a dime of the money anyway.

IAAL

 

[kimme]

i wouldn't anyway, I just don't think the whole story was told and don't think she should have collected if he really did commit suicide (since there was a note and all) or so she claimed.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

i wouldn't anyway, I just don't think the whole story was told and don't think she should have collected if he really did commit suicide (since there was a note and all) or so she claimed.

My response:

Okay, now you sound like you have a vendetta. You now know that, no matter what, the insurance money would never go to his estate and, if it gets paid, it goes only to the named beneficiary.

So, since you're not going to see a dime of this money anyway, WHAT does it matter to YOU if his sister got the insurance money?

So what? What's it to you?

IAAL

 

[kimme]

I smell a rat that's what. He was after all still my father. SO ... if there was nothing to hide ? WHy not notify his next of kin ? Why lie and say he had no other family, why bury him before the rpts are back ? Why ask why ?

 

[cbg]

kimme, I don't know if you missed it, but one poster pointed out that many policies have a two-year clause. They won't pay on a suicide if it's within two years after the policy is issued, but if it's been more than two years, they will. While I grant you that I've been out of the life insurance industry for about fifteen years, that was my experience also. How long ago was the policy issued?

 

[kimme]

I think the policy was only issued in 2001 when he sold his house because he bought the policy with the proceeds. I guess it just seems strange to me that she never bothered to tell anyone that there was a supposed suicide note and also that he did have a daughter. She just up and buried him within a couple of days and I found out about his death after he was in the ground(literally).

 

[Dandy Don]

You or the executor of the estate needs to contact the insurance company to try to get a copy of the policy to see if it allows for payment in case of suicide or not.

 

[HomeGuru]

You or the executor of the estate needs to contact the insurance company to try to get a copy of the policy to see if it allows for payment in case of suicide or not.

**A: why does it matter? The insurance company has already paid out on the policy and the writer is not a beneficiary.

 

[coosi]

I think there's a long story here...

 

[HomeGuru]

Yes and I hope we are spared.

 

[porcelina]

ok, let me get this right. Its your father that died. So that does make you VERY interested in this. It sounds rather strange that the sister told police it was suicide and collected on the policy. Was she the sole beneficiary? I can understand you being interested in this since it's your father that died. My condolences to you on the death of your father. I can understand you being concerned, but since it seems the sister was the sole beneficiary she got the money.

 

[ALawyer]

Life insuarnce policies generally DO pay beneficiaries in the event of suicide IF the policy was in force for 2 or more years prior to the suicide. In fact in several states death benefits are payable even if the insured committed suicide within the 2 year period but only if the insured was insane.

One of the purposes of requiring insurance companies to pay in the event of a suicde is to prohibt them from being able to deny claims by contending the insured committed suicide -- such as "X was driving 150 miles an hour at the time of the accident and no one would do that unless he was trying to commit suicide, so we'll make you sue us to collect" or "you claim he was skydiving and his parachute did not open (or walking along a clif as she was a daredevel) but we won't pay as we think it was suicide".

The issue of suicide can still arise in the context of an accidental death benfit or policy -- often a so called "double indemnity" rider -- when the claimant says the insured died in an accident but the insurance company contends that it was not an accident but a suicide. In such cases the condition to collect is that there be an accident as defined in the policy and the beneficiary has to prove that the death was an accident, and the insurance company can defend by producing some evidence and arguing it was suicide not an accident, but as the issue only concerns the "extra" benefit, not the basic life insurance benefit.

 

[Bigfoot]

The missing piece still is how the official cause of death was established. Unless you live in a tiny hillbilly town with Jethro in charge, no officer of the law is going to come to a house, find someone dead, and accept a 'sister's' word that the decedent committed suicide. The medical examiner will be called unless the person was already ill to the point of being near death and had a 'do not resucitate order' established. Law enforcement will see this as a suspicious death, put an investigator on it, and draw conclusions.