chaosmillenium21 asked:
My girlfriends mother died, and the police could not determine if the father had anything to do with murder or if it was a *******. But it has been about 2 and a half years she had life insurance and the two kids never received anything they are ages 20 and 18 now but the father was not listed as a beneficiary on the will or anything. He has promised them money but never received anything from him but he has received money. I need help and information on how that works and if they can do anything? I have also recently heard of probate, and petitioning something i have been researching but can’t make sense of what my girlfriend is saying. So Please anyone who can help and give information on the laws of beneficiaries and/or spouses of anything about insurance payouts please help i would like to know? But they are also not receiving any portion of the money. or anything of hers she may be able to receive? Please give websites to help my confusion too.
My girlfriends mother died, and the police could not determine if the father had anything to do with murder or if it was a *******. But it has been about 2 and a half years she had life insurance and the two kids never received anything they are ages 20 and 18 now but the father was not listed as a beneficiary on the will or anything. He has promised them money but never received anything from him but he has received money. I need help and information on how that works and if they can do anything? I have also recently heard of probate, and petitioning something i have been researching but can’t make sense of what my girlfriend is saying. So Please anyone who can help and give information on the laws of beneficiaries and/or spouses of anything about insurance payouts please help i would like to know? But they are also not receiving any portion of the money. or anything of hers she may be able to receive? Please give websites to help my confusion too.
{ 2 comments }
If the Mom didn’t have a will she died intestate. Everything would go to her husband in that case. The children only get a portion of the monies if there is a will.
Okay, the first thing you need to do is find out who was the beneficiary of the deceased. You may find out that the children were the beneficiaries of the life insurance, but seeing as how both children were minors at the time the life insurance can do a few things. One being giving the money to their legal guardians, most likely the father, or to hold the money in a trust until they get to be of legal age, which they have now. If the money was given to the father for care and holding for the children then there isn’t anything you can do about him receiving the money unless you can prove that he misused the money. That can take a lot of work to prove and a lot of time to prove in the courts as “providing” for children, especially aged 17 and 15 respectively, can be very expensive. If there were any bills left over from her death, beyond her funeral expenses, these could reasonably have used up a great portion of her life insurance.
You need to know exactly what her life insurance policy was for, and what reasonable bills could have come from a funeral and showing. Then remember who took care of the minors until they came of age. It may be hard to think about it, but teenagers are expensive, with cars and car insurance, food and clothing, schooling and extra curricular activities. Then add in shelter, the home. Did their father take some time off of work to grieve? This is what life insurance is for! It is supposed to help the family take the time to grieve their loss while still being able to pay all the bills that daily life requires, like food, shelter, water, electricity, heat, air conditioning, etc. All of these things add up, and if there was any debt before her death, such as credit cards, car loans, etc, these things have to paid for as well.
And a lot of people, if they are able to, try to leave enough life insurance to cover any debts and the house plus leaving some to allow the family to grieve their loss the way they need to without worrying about losing a car or paying the electricity or putting food on the table for two teenagers.