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Can I Name Anyone I Want as my Beneficiary?

Posted by Pamela Spencer On February - 1 - 2010

When it comes to choosing the beneficiary for your life insurance policy, you have the ability to name whomever you want. However, there are a few things you should consider before you actually name your beneficiaries on your life insurance policy documents. For one thing, you need to be name specific. Simply stating “my spouse”or “my wife” could put you at risk of an ex-spouse or partner trying to claim benefits after a divorce. Another thing that many insurance professionals advise people to do is name a secondary or contingent beneficiary. This is for situations where you end up out living your primary beneficiary.


You should always name actual family members as your beneficiaries rather than just allowing the proceeds from your life insurance policy to end up in your estate. A major advantage to death benefits on a life insurance policy is usually they get paid out to beneficiaries very quickly. Normally beneficiaries will be paid within 60 days of filing their claim. This avoids having to go through a lengthy probate court process along with your other assets that are part of your estate.

You can change your beneficiaries on your life insurance policy whenever you want to. However if there are important life changes such as divorce or death of your beneficiary, you do need to make sure you actually do remember to change your beneficiary. It’s possible for your survivors to challenge your named beneficiary. However the process is an expensive and lengthy one.

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Collecting on a Life Insurance Policy

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 11 - 2009

The worst thing has happened. Your parents, wife, husband or another loved one is gone. The beneficiary has the responsibility of contacting the insurance company to collect on the life insurance. This is why it’s so important to ensure that your beneficiaries are aware of this.

If you are a life insurance policy beneficiary, you first need to find out which insurance company you need to contact. You can find this out by locating a copy of the policy in the deceased person’s home or in their important papers that could be stored in a safety deposit box or other location. If you are unable to locate the insurance documents, you will need to wait for the insurance bill to show up or automatic payment withdrawn from the checking account. Then you can contact the insurance company.

A death certificate will need to be give to the life insurance company. Most insurance companies pay the death benefit within a few days to few weeks unless there is some sort of suspicion that fraud has occurred. In most cases, the money will be available fairly quickly in order to pay for the funeral and other financial matters quickly.


If the insurance policy has lapsed, it could be a tough situation. If the policy lapsed due to the insured’s death, the date that is on the death certificate can be used to help you collect on your claim to the insurance company without difficulties. If the deceased person had stopped paying the premiums, you might be able to collect some reduced value on the policy, however in other cases you will be out of luck.

If the deceased person died a long time ago, will it be too late for you to collect? What if you find a policy in the bottom of some drawer twenty years after your late husband died and you never knew about the policy? You might still be able to collect. In some circumstances the insurance company when they heard of the insured’s death will have turned the funds over to a government or other type of agency to monitor. If this occurred the insurance company will tell you who to contact. Insurance benefits do not have statues of limitations.

What if the insurance company went under? Will I still be able to get my money? In this case, unfortunately no is the answer. If the insurance company declared bankruptcy, this provides the insurance company protection from individual attempting to collect on insurance policies that were originally financed by them. It may seem unfair, but unfortunately it’s the law.

Sometimes there are difficult circumstances that surround insurance policies as well as collecting when the insured dies. However most collections are smooth and occur without a lot of hassle. If you have a loved one who has passed away the insurance company doesn’t want to make things harder for you during this difficult time.

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Choosing a Beneficiary for Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On April - 10 - 2009

When it comes to managing a life insurance policy there are usually tough decisions that must be made. One of the hardest is deciding who you should be the beneficiary on your policy. It can be difficult to decide who most needs the death benefit that your life insurance would pay in the event of your death. Although this can be a hard thing to have to think about, it’s critical to give it some serious thought. Often the first person you think of for your beneficiary might not be the best one to choose. Here are a few things you should consider when deciding who should be your beneficiary.

One consideration to think of is to ask yourself who would benefit the most from the death benefit on your life insurance policy. It could be your children or your spouse or maybe a favorite charity of yours. Most policies will allow you to name multiple beneficiaries. If the death benefit on your policy is large enough you may be able to name several beneficiaries and have each receive part of the benefits. Even if you decide to choose multiple beneficiaries you shill need to weigh the pros and cons of the people you are considering to be possible beneficiaries. You need to make sure that those who need the benefit the most do not get left out or that there isn’t someone who would be better suited to receive the benefit.


You also need to take into consideration funeral expenses and potential bills that might need to be paid should you die. You don’t want to leave your family with the financial burden of having to be responsible to pay for these type of expenses. Your life insurance policy can help to take that burden away from your family. You should try to think of what family member, or someone else that you have a lot of trust in, would be the best person to oversee the process and make sure all of the funeral expenses and bills got paid. It might be a good idea to talk to this person ahead of time to see if they would be comfortable having this responsibility. You also need to be sure that the benefits on your life insurance policy will be sufficient to pay for all the debts and expenses.

Take into account any long-term goals or plans that you have for the future, such as money for children’s college education or paying off your mortgage. If you should pass away suddenly, you want to make sure the proceeds from your life insurance policy will be sufficient to pay for these long term goals. You may want to have part of your policy be set aside to finance your children’s college fund or a retirement fund for your spouse.

When you are shopping for a life insurance policy discuss what your options are with your insurance agent. The agent may have some other options for you to consider regarding beneficiaries as well as discuss any limitations regarding the policy. Your agent can help you ensure that the life insurance policy that you choose will meet all of your needs and that you make the best choices when it comes to choosing the best beneficiaries for your life insurance policy.

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