Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey

Betty: It appears your father may have been the victim of a pretty face, and this will not be the first time this has happened. Best you can hope for is a sympathetic judge that may agree the debts incurred did not benefit your father and are the responsibility of the woman. If she is the beneficiary of the policy, it will not enter the picture as to the estate debts, but you might raise some questiond with the insurance company, such as why and under what representations they wrote a policy owned and benefiting someone who had no insurable interest in your father (a non-family member, not a creditor, etc.) and who paid the premiums. Maybe, if you could show that Dad paid the premiums, or they were paid using his credit card, you could claim some form of equitable trust giving you a part of the policy proceeds. This is an answer to an Internet question and the response is not intended to be legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship.

I agree with Walter's answer. As a general rule, the life insurance proceeds would not be considered part of the estate and normally would not be subject to the estate's debts.