When you buy life insurance, you likely have in mind specific family members who will receive the death benefit when you die. Unfortunately, many people do not ensure that a son or daughter is added to their insurance policy, or that an ex-spouse is taken off, leaving family members empty-handed after their death. The only way to make sure that the right person gets your benefit is to keep your policy's beneficiaries up-to-date.

Naming and changing a beneficiary is something only the policyowner can accomplish. After your death, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to change or dispute the beneficiary.

When can you dispute?

There are very limited instances in which a life insurance beneficiary can be disputed. For example, if a man's policy still has his first wife as the beneficiary, his second wife could challenge the beneficiary designation after his death. To do so, the second wife would have to notify the insurance company of her challenge. While the dispute is being decided, the insurance company pays the benefit to a trust held by a state court, and that court then decides the legitimacy of any challenge.

"The insurance company can't be put in the role of deciding what is fair and equitable. Otherwise they'd invite charges of bad-faith claims," says Jack Dolan of the American Council of Life Insurance.

Your own mortality is hardly a pleasant topic to dwell on, but checking the beneficiary of your life insurance policy is important to those who will survive you. Your life insurance agent can help you: He or she should protect you against ambivalent language in your policy (for example, naming "wife" as the beneficiary, rather than writing out her full name) and point out to you how major life changes such as a divorce might warrant a review of your insurance policy.