Are life insurance monies considered part of the "estate" of the decedent?

Question

If my mom has thousands in debt when she dies with no other estate to cover it, will her creditors be after me to pay her debts if they know she has a large life insurance policy and I'm the beneficiary?

Answer 1

Sure they'll be AFTER you, but if YOU are the beneficiary, her DEBT is not inheritable . . . so as much as they'll haunt you and try to guilt you into paying them, you have NO OBLIGATION to pay her debts.

Now, if her ESTATE is the beneficiary, that's an entirely different story. Then the money IS part of her estate. But if YOU are the DIRECT POLICY BENEFICIARY, it's not part of HER estate.

Answer 2

Yes , the funeral home will file the life insurance , the remainder will be held in probate , and the social security administration will notify the creditors of the death , along with the county you lived in so they can file the debt with the courts, the average time insurance money ,and property will be held in probate is about a year or more , and I do not know about where you live ,but here , when my girlfriends dad died at my house , the coroner came ,and examined the body , and then asked questions, to include " did the deceased have any other residence " and "is there any life insurance policies" .. I told him "NO" , but they still checked , and listed "none found" on the death certificate.. You may want to check with the insurance company , and ask them how exactly are the benefits are distributed to the beneficiary.
If they mail you the check , make sure you have money for the funeral , my next door neighbor did not have the money , and come funeral time , they stopped the service , and refused to bury the lady until the funeral was paid in full , normally you can not get anything without the death certificate , and of course that too is held at the funeral home the mortuary director has to sign off on it , it takes about a week or two , sometimes longer to get the extra copies of the death certificate for you . It is overnight if the funeral home files the insurance ,but the reaminder is released to the estate .

Answer 3

It's a decent question and it has several answers. First, what are your Mother's wishes? Does she want you to clean up her estate debt to the best of your ability? What does her will say about this? Anyone else named as beneficiary in the life policy or in the will? What are your fiduciary duties to your Mother's estate?

If you are the owner of the policy on your Mother then not to worry; you just have to deal with what you think best about paying all, some, or none of her debt and carrying out her wishes. Check with a credit company in which she has no debt and pose this question.

Have you visited with an attorney in your state?

Good Luck and aDios

Answer 4

I agree with mbrcatz17. If her estate is the beneficiary of the policy, then yes the proceeds go to the estate. The estate has debt, so the life policy proceeds would go towards the debt. However, if you are the beneficiary, then the proceeds go to you, not the estate and you are not liable for her debts.

Answer 5

If they find out, yes.

You are not liable for your Mothers debt but her estate is and if the creditors find out about the life insurance they will take you to court over it.

Answer 6

if your are the named beneficiary, the creditor won't be able to touch your money. As insurer will pay to the beneficiary directly.

2 reason that u might need to pay
a) you are also liable to the debt.
b) you want to inherit the properties stated in her will.

Answer 7

Yes, they will try anything to get their money, even though you are not liable for her debts the creditors will look for insurance policies right away.

Answer 8

the answer to this depends on who paid for the policy ... you or your mother?

if she paid, the proceeds are part of her estate in terms of paying her debts. [although maybe not so for estate tax purposes.]

if you paid, they aren't.


simple, eh?