I've answered a lot of questions about life insurance on the Forum. But this one has me stumped. I never worked in customer service at my former employer, so I never encountered this question.My mother was sold a $5,000 whole life policy on me when I was 11. When I was 23, she wanted me to take over the policy. I declined, and advised her to cash out the policy for whatever the payout would be. Long story short, the life policy salesman convinced her to convert the policy to a fully paid up policy of about $2,300. Fast forward 50 years, my mother has been dead for 20 years. She is listed as both the owner of the policy, and the sole beneficiary of the policy. This is a Lincoln Life policy. How can I collect on this policy? I would prefer not to wait till I die, have the payout go to her estate, and then go to my estate, then eventually to my wife.
If the policy is "non-participating" (that it, is doesn't pay dividends), then a $2,300 paid up policy has a current cash value of somewhere around $1,000-$1,500. So it's not going to be worth going to a lawyer or anything else of the sort, because those costs would mount up quickly against such a small asset. (It would likely be worth a good bit more if it was a participating policy that paid dividends.)
While I've never personally encountered this question, I expect that Lincoln Life has. I'd suggest that you get in touch with Lincoln Life, and see what they advise. The first thing they should do is check to see if the policy is still in force (Mom may have cashed it out before her death). Then, I'd expect that they'd require some type of documentation to establish that ownership could be transferred to you (maybe something like a death certificate and some information as to how her estate was distributed).
If you can get ownership of the policy into your name, then you can do with it what you'd like. But you're going to need to work through Lincoln Life to make that ownership transfer happen.
If Lincoln Life isn't helpful, you could reach out to your state insurance department. But you've got to work through Lincoln first.
Hope this helps. Let us know how this turns out for you.
Statistics: Posted by Stinky — Thu Nov 21, 2024 2:49 am — Replies 1 — Views 85
