Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Life insurance policy distribution is determined by how the beneficiaries are listed. If you are to receive 75% and your mother is to receive 25%, that is how the insurance company will distribute the policy benefits. Were your parents married at the time your father passed?

Life insurance has nothing to do with community property. It is a contract between a decedent and an insurance company, and it is enforced in accordance with the laws governing insurance policies and contract law. If you are listed as a 75 % beneficiary, you get 75%.

I do not see a theory as to how your mother can claim 100% of the policy payout.

I don't agree with my colleagues about the inapplicability of the community property rules here. If the premiums were paid with community property assets, your parents intended that the policy be community property, and there is nothing to suggest that your parents had separated (e.g., a filing of a petition for divorce, or other facts), then the policy proceeds could indeed be community property.

Note, however, that your parents could have agreed that the policy was your father's separate property, and thus agreed that the community property laws did not apply to it. This will depend on the specific facts of your case.

Assuming the policy was 100% the separate property of your father, the 75%/25% distribution will apply. Assuming the policy was 100% community property, then your mother has a right to 50% of the payout.

The insurance company may see there is a dispute based on California's community property laws as to who should be paid, and commence an action in interpleader if you and your Mom cannot agree on the distribution. In this case, the court will hold the disputed funds until resolution of that action.