Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas

Re: Life Insurance with out a benificary

The policy proceeds will be made payable to his estate since he failed to name a beneficiary. His estate needs to be entered in probate in order to get the authority to make disbursement. Speak with a lawyer that practices probate law in the county where your son lived.

Re: Life Insurance with out a benificary

In addition to the advice of Mr. Brady, you may want to check with a family lawyer who can seek to garnish the proceeds to pay back child support. However, this requires the assistance of the courts, and you have indicated that you do not want to get involved with the courts. Perhaps you will reconsider and give the dead beat dad an opportunity to pay his just debts for the support of his son.

Re: Life Insurance with out a benificary

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. There are a few things you need to do. First, you need to obtain a copy of the policy. Some policies have a default beneficiary clause that specifies where proceeds go if there is no beneficiary designation. Seoncd, assuming there is no default provision (or the default is that it goes to the estate) is that you will have to have a probate court order the distribution. This isn't a necessarily difficult or expensive proceeding. You will need a probate attorney, however, just to ensure this is handled properly.