Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: putative spouse

Your statement of facts leads me to believe that you would not qualify as putative spouse. A putative spouse must have a good faith belief that there was a valid marriage. The length of the relationship has little to do with the putative spouse concept. There are a few cases in which both parties were aware that there was not a legal marriage and the one party was estopped, stopped, by court from objecting to the putative spouse claim, because he had actively participated in keeping the relationship going even though the other party wanted to get married. This concept would generally not apply to a third party such as the life insurance company. Generally the insurance company pays the proceeds to the person named as the beneficiary. You should gather all of the documents you can and consult with an attorney. The actual facts in your case may five rise to a different result.