Life Policy On Wife-No Will

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pnh

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I am looking for an accurate answer in the following situation.We have lots of opinion and it is a real situation which is happening to my wifes' brother.

His wife died suddenly several years ago leaving himself and 2 teenage offspring.
He had a Life Policy on his wife which he had paid for.There was no Will-but the policy paid out to him. Quite a substantial sum I gather.
The 2 teenagers-now a little older-seem to be getting "advice" from their deceased mothers family, and are being led to believe that this policy should have been divided in three-that is one third each.

That is the situation in a nutshell .So would appreciate comment from anyone familiar with the legal aspect of this situation.
 
This is from the citizens information website.


Intestacy

If a person dies without having made a will or if the will is invalid for whatever reason, that person is said to have died "intestate". If there is a valid will, but part of it is invalid then that part is dealt with as if there was an intestacy. The rules for division of property on intestacy are as follows:

If the deceased is survived by

* spouse/civil partner but no children - spouse/civil partner gets entire estate
* spouse/civil partner and children - spouse/civil partner gets two-thirds, one-third is divided equally between children (if a child has already died his/her children take a share)
* parents, no spouse/civil partner or children - divided equally or entirely to one parent if only one survives.
* children, no spouse/civil partner - divided equally between children (as above)
* brothers and sisters only - shared equally, the children of a deceased brother or sister take the share
* nieces and nephews only - divided equally between those surviving
* other relatives - divided equally between nearest equal relationship
* no relatives - the state

The only question is: did the proceeds of the policy form part of his wife's estate?
That should be obvious from the terms of the policy/pay out.


Were there other assets in wife's sole name?

If everything else was in joint names, it would not have formed part of her estate.

mf
 
In this instance the policy premiums were paid by the husband. In that instance the policy proceeds do not fall into the estate of his wife as he is the owner of the policy and will be entitled to the full proceeds. The owner of the policy is not the deceased but the payer of the premiums.
 
44brendan said:
In this instance the policy premiums were paid by the husband. In that instance the policy proceeds do not fall into the estate of his wife as he is the owner of the policy and will be entitled to the full proceeds. The owner of the policy is not the deceased but the payer of the premiums.
Click to expand...
Well that is an interesting answer and I thank u for response.May I ask though how certain u are of this?Appreciate your response
 
If the husband was the "proposer" on the application he is the beneficiary of the proceeds of the policy, it doesn't depend on who paid the premiums. I'm nearly certain that the policy payout would not have been issued to the husband if he wasn't the proposer, so it wouldn't go into his late wifes' estate.
 


If both the wife and husband were jointly insured under the policy, then any payment from the policy would automatically be paid to the husband, as the joint owner.

If it was single life policy i.e. the wife was the only person insured on it and the husband was the Proposer, then the benefit is paid to the husband (regardless of who paid the premiums).

If there was no Proposer on the policy, then the benefit is paid to the estate.

You say the sum was a substantial amount. The company I worked for would require a Letter of Administration to be taken out before paying out higher amounts, to ensure that they were making the payment to the person legally appointed to look after the estate.
 
Harry31 said:
If the husband was the "proposer" on the application he is the beneficiary of the proceeds of the policy, it doesn't depend on who paid the premiums. I'm nearly certain that the policy payout would not have been issued to the husband if he wasn't the proposer, so it wouldn't go into his late wifes' estate.
Click to expand...
Well thank all for replies.The husband was the proposer and paid all premiums so this makes sense.
However the area of contention seems to be per point 2 above from Citizens Information.
I would also agree with the point that it would be very unlikely for the insurance company to pay out to him if he was not entitled to it.
Dear oh dear-families and money eh.
Anyway thanks to all for responses
 
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