Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

confused about life

My ex-wife passed away and 6 months after her death I was informed that I was the primary beneficiary on her group Life Insurance policy. The designation was contested by her daughter. I found out later that she and the benefits dept. had been busy from the time of her death the two of them had been busy trying to find ways to disqualify me, one of which was trying to get me to sign a waiver claiming it to be something else. I am not hard to find. Five months had gone by and they were giving her every chance to dig up something and she could not. If she had not tried to decieve me I may have never found out about the insurance benefit. If there were any mistake of my designation I think that in 5 months it would have come out. They are saying that before she died, her company switched insurance companies and all employees were supposed to fill out new ben. designation forms and she did not. The form was in her file but it was a form supplied by the previous ins. co. Isn't this still valid? They are assuming she would have changed it and are saying it is not valid which gives it to the estate which I am not a part of anymore. I think there is some fraud here. If it were not valid they would not have contacted me. Can you help?


Asked on 9/05/05, 11:33 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Aaron Davis Law Office of Aaron M. Davis

Re: confused about life

There are a lot of unanswered questions here. Were you or were you not the beneficiary on your ex-wife's policy? How long had you been divorced before she passed away? Was there some reason the benefits department would collude with your ex-wife's daughter to keep you from obtaining the benefit of the policy? The answer to these questions make a large difference in determining whether you are the rightful beneficiary.

If you are in Northern California, and would like to discuss this matter further, please contact me.

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Answered on 9/08/05, 1:57 pm
Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

Re: confused about life

My take on this is . . . if the insurance policy upon which you were the named beneficiary expired or was canceled, you are not a beneficiary of that policy. If she failed to designate a beneficiary on the new policy, then the estate may be the beneficiary. I say "may be" because, it depends whether you were still married at the time, how long you remained married to her while she continued at the job, what her intentions were about changing the beneficiary, whether the company should be estopped from asserting the money should go to the estate rather than you, etc. For a lawyer to consider taking on litigation, you would have to disclose how much the policy is worth -- i.e. is it worth spending a lot of bucks on a lawyer for a relatively small policy?

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Answered on 9/07/05, 11:48 pm


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