Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Tennessee

My parents are leaving the 5 kids 4.5 million dollar in life insurance that gets split up equally overall. My stepdad has his policy to give out 600,000 each to his 2 kids and 300,000 each to my moms 3 and my moms policy reads just the opposite with her 3 getting 6 each and his getting 3 each. This is all being handled through an estate attorney. Their policies list my step sister and my brother as executors. My question is that as my parents are aging my brother and I no longer speak to each other. I have no contact with him or his family at all. This just happened over the last 2 years and these policies were established 20 years ago. Should I contest the executor or how can I protect my interest in the estate when the time comes? I spoke to my mother and she does not see the problems between he and I to be that bad and is leaving everything as is. I don't want to fight when that time comes .


Asked on 5/25/15, 8:06 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael McNulty McNulty & Associates

This is an interesting question because typically a life insurance policy is payable before an estate is administrated and the terms of a Will would not apply to the division of the life insurance. The only situation in which this would be different is if the decedent paid the insurance policy to his Estate and then it would be distributed according to the terms of the Will. If the policy was not made payable to the Estate, you simply need to look at the beneficiary designation within the life insurance to determine how the policy would be paid.

I would be more than happy to review these documents for you if you still have any questions. Please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help.

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Answered on 5/25/15, 12:44 pm


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