Legal Question in Insurance Law in Illinois

Recently my mother passed away on June 1, 2011 of a heart attack and she had a very long history with these health issues as well as a family history. I have a sister that refuses to believe she had a heart attack and is now calling anyone that can she find to call and tell them that even though cpr was performed on her mother that she knows that I killed her, which is not true I wasn't the only person with her when she collapsed and we started cpr on her for twenty min because we couldn't get an ambulance there. Anyway, she was left as sole benefeciary on 3 life policies which my mother had put her as two years ago because she had left her husband 2 years ago and she didn't want her to be left without any way of living, because she lives off of disability now and always has. So this had never been changed even though my mother left no will and voiced to me that she needed to update her benefeciaries on her policies about 2 months ago because she hadn't done so. Well she never got around to it and that left my sister getting all of this and left my dad and I with the expenses. Can this be contested?


Asked on 6/24/11, 9:24 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kenneth Goetz

What you are asking involves major litigation. First you have to open a probate estate for the purpose of collecting assets (insurance proceeds). Then you would file a Citation to collect the proceeds from your sister and probably have to prove that she used undue influence to persuade her mother to appoint her as the beneficiary of all three policies. It is up to you to decide if this is practical considering the burden of the cost of litigation over the benefit of recovering expenses incurred by your mother's care.

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Answered on 6/28/11, 5:12 am


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