AboutMichael Feinberg, ChFC Expertise I am the Executive Director of Synergy Financial Services, concentrating in
life insurance, long term care insurance, and long-term and tax-advantaged
investing. I am licensed for Life, Health, and Securities. I am always happy to answer any questions you may have on any of these
topics.
Question QUESTION: Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I am actually asking on behalf of my boyfriend. Three years ago his brother passed away (six weeks after he got married). Since then speaking with the brother's wife is impossible and she refuses to return any of the possessions he had before getting married (let alone any of his clothes ect to facilitate the family moving on.)
While he was alive my boyfriend's brother confided in him that he was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy should anything happen to him. This was corroborated by a friend of the family that states the brother told him "she will be in for a rude awakening if anything ever happens to me because I'm leaving everything to my brother".
However, when my boyfriend tried to claim the life insurance benefits the company said they already paid it out to his wife. Then after numerous weeks arguing they admitted they paid out one small policy to her (that was meant to go to him) and returned his money. When he asked to see the change of beneficiary form the insurance company refused and asked him to leave. He suspects that she was paid the entire life insurance policy when he was in fact the beneficiary. Firstly are insurance companies required to show family the change of beneficiary forms without getting a lawyer involved? Also, do you have advice for what he can do in this situation?
Thanks so much.
Jenny
ANSWER: I would find it very surprising that an insurance company would pay a life insurance death benefit proceed to someone who was not the beneficiary. Death claims are very tightly monitored by insurance companies to ensure that the recipient of the funds is the legally named beneficiary on the policy.
It would not be surprising if your boyfriend was denied receiving any information on the policy from the insurance company if he in fact was not a party to the policy (if he wasn't the beneficiary or owner of the policy). Since most of the reasoning given for why you believe your boyfriend was the beneficiary is third party/unverified hearsay, it's hard to know one way or another.
If you believe that there has been a legal injustice done, there's not much of a way to get anything done without getting a lawyer involved. If you feel strongly that you have been wronged, that would be your best option.
Hope this helps!
Mike
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you this answer does help. My follow up question is this.
Most of my information does come from 3rd party verbal hearsay except that they already wrongly paid out one life insurance policy to her (again hearsay but they supposedly thought that because she was the wife it automatically went to her?!).
After months of communications with the insurance office and documents proving that an agent from their company visited him regarding him being the beneficiary of his brother's life insurance policy, they finally admitted to wrongly paying her. However, the brother had multiple policies and they only admitted to wrongly paying the smallest one.
My boyfriend believes that his brother definitely did not have time to change the beneficiary nor did he want to on the other two policies. Is it possible that the company only admitted to wrongly paying the smallest one? In your opinion do you think this is something we should look into?
Thanks again!
Jenny
Answer Sounds as though there may be some state laws going on in this situation (some states have laws preventing spouses that incorporate into life insurance beneficiaries, etc. However, this is different in every state and it sounds like your issues are legal in nature and I can only suggest that you seek legal counsel if you want to pursue an appropriate remedy.
