Life Insurance & Annuities Forum

Oct. 24, 2007

My brother was principle beneficiary on my father's insurance policy, but other names may have been on the policy as well. Is there any way to find out who else might have been named as a beneficiary? Is my brother supposed to contact any other beneficiaries, or is the insurance company responsible?

Sheila, Arkansas

If your brother is the only primary beneficiary, the insurance company would pay the entire death benefit to him, but if there is more than one primary beneficiary the company would distribute the death benefit accordingly.

Contingent beneficiaries, on the other hand, are named on life insurance policies so that the insurance company will know who to pay if the primary beneficiary is deceased. So just because there may have been other names on the policy doesn't mean that anyone else would be entitled to the death benefit.

Mike Bartholomew, senior counsel for the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), says that when a notice of death is filed by any of the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy it puts the insurer on notice that the claim should be paid.

The insurer will then try to contact any other beneficiaries — sometimes asking the person who first informed the company of the death for contact information.

If the life insurance contract was not clear about who the beneficiaries are, the insurance company will often pay the proceeds to a court for it to decide the rightful recipient.

"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 ACLI.

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Disclaimer: We are journalists, not financial planners or insurance brokers. Nothing we say should be interpreted as a recommendation to buy or sell any insurance product, or to provide other financial or legal advice.