Is life insurance considered part of an estate?

Question

My father in law passed away and we have threats to sue his estate by his landlord. He had no money, only life insurance. Can they sue us for the life insurance money?

Answer 1

No, unless the policy beneficiary is the estate.  If the named beneficiary is another party, the proceeds go straight there - they do not become part of the estate and are not subject to probate.

Answer 2

Nope. The life insurance money is *not* part of the estate. Upon your FILs death, present a copy of his death certificate to the insurance company, and the beneficiary listed on the policy will receive the funds directly. Creditors can NOT make claims against a life insurance policy. However, they *can* sue the estate. And the estate is usually handled by the next of kin, unless an executor was specifically appointed in a will or other legal instrument.

His landlord wants to sue???  For a dead guy's rent? Sorry to be so blunt, but that landlord sounds like a real jerk. Why not just pay up the rent that was owed, and then you won't have these worries hanging over your head.

Answer 3

The ownership of the policy determines if the policy is in the estate or not.  If your father owned the policy than yes, it is part of the estate.  If the policy was owned by someone else like your mother, or a trust than no it isn't part of his estate.

Answer 4

The insurance money goes to the beneficiary and is not part of the estate. If there is no money then the landlord gets nothing.

Answer 5

For tax / legal purposes, life insurance is considered a part of the deceased's estate.  Once your father-in-law passed away, his estate passed to his heirs or trust depending on whatever wills/trusts/final wishes were in-place.  Likewise, his debt, which is part of his overall estate, was passed along.  Debt is not erased at death.  That's the whole purpose of having life insurance - to pay off the debt.  

Any creditors he had can claim the money from his estate.

Answer 6

life insurance is considered a piece of property.  if he had a beneficiary named on his policy, then the proceeds would be paid to whomever is listed as the beneficiary.  however, if he had no one named, then his estate would then become the beneficiary any creditiors may be able to reclaim whatever is owed to them.

Answer 7

Yes an estate IS created when an insurance policy is issued. The estate is created automatically. Your estate is what the courts look at it is investments and assets MINUS liabilities. What is left over is the estate. Now, that being said, when the owner of  a policy dies, the money goes directly to the beneficiary, by passing taxes and all creditors. Unless, the estate, including the death benefit of any and all insurance policy, exceeds that years federal government max for estates (this year something between 2- 2.5mil). If it does not exceed the max, there are NO death taxes and the money goes to the beneficiary.

Answer 8

Yes and yes.  And then the court will have to decide how much the landlord gets.  Get a lawyer.

Answer 9

If you or your wife are the named beneficiary of the life insurance policy, it DOES NOT become part of the estate. If no beneficiary is named or they are deceased, then it becomes part of the estate. As for the landlord, he can bring suit against you for almost any reason but it must pass the courts approval. If you or your wife are the beneficiary and the landlord does not have a lease provision to be able to collect unpaid debts from your father in laws heirs then he does not have a legal claim.

Answer 10

It depends on why the landlord is threatening to sue.

If there is rent oweing he would only be able to reclaim that ammount.

A life insurance policy is put in place to ensure that if the policyholder is injured or dies whilst covered, they are left in a position where they are not at a loss because of it.

It would also depend on what the life insurance covered.

Answer 11

Life insurance that is in any way controlled by the deceased is part of the gross estate for tax purposes (after deducting any to spouse).  But life insurance with named beneficiaries goes directly to those beneficiaries without going through probate.  So it is not part of the estate for creditors.

However, in a community property state, a living spouse may still be liable for debts of the deceased.