Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas
Life Insurance with out a benificary
My 18 year old son was killed in a car wreack, he worked for the state of texas and had life insurance, he never named a benificary for it, he assumed it would go to me his mother since i have raised him on my on. the state wants
to bring in his dad who is a drug addict and abusive and has had no contact with my son since i left him when my son was 4 years old, this man has treaten to kill us and
we dont want him in our lifes nor would my son want him to receive any of his fund.. he would rather it all go to his sister. is there any way we can get around this with out having to bring this terrible person back in our life and dishonoring my son? my son has always lived with me and even thoough he had a good job he still shoice to stay at home with me... family members of the father has told us that he wtill has a really bad drug problem and i know any money he would receive would just fo to support that habit and I am total against that please help me
3 Answers from Attorneys
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.
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