What to do if my wife's cousin has challenged a change in my mother-in-law's life insurance policy?
Question Details: My mother in law recently passed away. Several years ago she lived with my wife’s cousin and changed her life insurance beneficiary from her daughter (my wife) to her niece; she did this in case something happened while she was staying with her in order for her final expenses to be covered. She became ill last winter with leukemia and moved out of state to be near her daughter during her final days. Her niece moved to another state as well. Shortly before she died, my mother-in-law changed the beneficiary back to her daughter. The change was accepted and an endorsement was sent showing my wife as beneficiary.
Under the laws of all states in this country, an insurance company is required to pay the designated beneficiary under a life insurance policy the amount of the policy within so many days of being notified of the passing subject to a court order directing otherwise.
From what you have written, if your wife was the designated beneficiary under the life insurance policy at issue, then under the law, she stands to receive the amount of the policy unless someone else can prove to a court of law that the mother-in-law was coerced into making the last change to the policy.
