Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Vermont
Can agent be sued for not contacting beneficiary.
My step-father passed away leaving an annuity listing my mother as primary beneficiary. The agent knew of death, the annuity, my mother's location and my sister's location. My sister had enduring power of attroney for my mother. No contact was made befort my mother died. Upon her death the annuity passed to my stepsister and not my mother's extate. Can agent be sued for malpractice?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can agent be sued not contacting beneficiary.
Agent probably cannot be sued by you, sorry, for a small variety of reasons.
However, if you haven't alienated the agent or the insurance company, see if they will show you their beneficiary designation forms which might show that step-dad listed step-daughter as the second beneficiary of the annuity. Alternatively, it was a survivorship (i.e., "second to die") kind of policy which was supposed to pay some sort of balance or residuary to whoever the survivor of the two designated either by whoever's listed on their form or by (your mother's) will.
If your mother designated nobody because the insurance company never asked for a designation and yet they should have, it would probably go into her estate and come out to her own kids.
Find out what kind of policy it was, if you can, and how those policies really work.
Also, by the way, annuities which pay out their interest often don't leave any balance for heirs, or not much, anyway, by design.
Good luck. See a local attorney when you have as much as you can get for facts; s/he may be able to get more (money or facts) for you after that.
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