Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Re: Designation of beneficiary

An insurance contract governs who the beneficiary is. If you were named in the policy, the funds belong to you. The court will look at the competency of the insured at the time they made you the beneficiary if there was any challenge.

Re: Designation of beneficiary

If you receive life insurance directed to you personally, not as executor or trustee of the estate, then the money is yours outside of the estate. If the life insurance was payable to the estate either by title, i.e., Estate of x & y, or because the beneciary who is supposed to receive the benefits is dead and there is no alternative beneficiary, then it would be a part of the estate. In either case the court would look to what is written down on the policy as beneficiary.

Re: Designation of beneficiary

A life insurance policy payable to a named individual is not part of a probate estate. The time that you were listed as a beneficiary is relevent as to the testator's intention.