[WSBAPT] Can a small estate affidavit be used to claim a life insurance policy with no living beneficiary designated?

[Jane Bitz]

The last one of these I dealt with, the policy itself said that it should be paid to the “next of kin” under the State law of the decedent’s domicile. We had to provide death certificates for the decedent’s mother and brother who were the named primary and secondary beneficiaries and a copy of her obituary showing her living and deceased siblings. The policy proceeds then went to the decedent’s surviving sisters and her nieces & nephews by representation for the deceased siblings shares. This was a very old Massachusetts Life policy now owned by MetLife.

Jane.


Jane G Bitz
Of Counsel
Wolff, Hislop & Crockett, PLLC
12209 E Mission, Suite 5
Spokane Valley WA 99206-4824
(509) 927-9700; FAX (509) 777-1800
jbitz at whc-attorneys.com<mailto:jane at jbitzlaw.com>
[cid:image002.png at 01D06C8A.419B0730]
THE CONTENTS OF THIS ELECTRONIC MAIL ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND PROTECTED BY THE ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE OR OTHER APPLICABLE PROTECTION.  Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this electronic mail in error, PLEASE NOTIFY ME BY E-MAIL, FAX OR TELEPHONE and PROMPTLY DELETE this electronic mail.  This mail cannot be modified without express written consent of Wolff, Hislop & Crockett, PLLC.  Thank You.




From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Eric Reutter
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2018 12:27 PM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Can a small estate affidavit be used to claim a life insurance policy with no living beneficiary designated?

Hi all,

I encountered an issue for which I have not yet found a good answer.

Simple and common situation: decedent passed away with a small (well under $100,000) life insurance policy for which no living beneficiary was named (all beneficiaries listed had predeceased the decedent). I haven't been given the policy yet, but I am making the assumption that the policy will say that the death benefit is now payable to the estate by default.

My question is, assuming all the threshold criteria of the small estate affidavit are met (under 100k, debts disposed of, etc...) can the small estate affidavit be presented to the life insurance company as authority for them to distribute to the surviving family member? (Thereby avoiding the need to open probate for just this small insurance benefit)

I am familiar with this small estate procedure when it comes to a bank account, but less so with a life insurance contract that likely defaults to being payable to the estate if no living beneficiary is named.

If anyone has experience using a small estate affidavit with a life insurance death benefit, I would be very grateful to hear you thoughts!

Best regards,

Eric Reutter
J.D., LL.M. Taxation
Lake Hills Estate Planning, PLLC

10900 NE 8th Street, Suite 1000<x-apple-data-detectors://3/0>

Bellevue, WA 98004<x-apple-data-detectors://3/0>
www.lakehillsestateplanning.com<http://www.lakehillsestateplanning.com/>
(425) 298-5895<tel:(425)%20298-5895>


This e-mail and the attachments within is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. secs. 2510-2521<tel:2510-2521>, and is legally privileged and confidential. This communication may also be protected by attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine or other applicable legal protections. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, the reader is hereby notified that any unauthorized review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180727/7c8bcda7/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 19722 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180727/7c8bcda7/image001.png>