7 Steps To Help Your Parents Avoid Expensive Life Insurance Mistakes
March 23, 2019 by Robert Mauterstock
Do your parents have life insurance policies? Are the policies still in force? How much are they paying for these policies? Do they still need them? These are all questions that you must answer to determine what to do with your parents’ life insurance. Follow these seven steps to make sure you and your parents make the right decision.
-
- First you must find the actual policies. If you cannot find them and your parents insist that they have life insurance, contact the companies and ask them for duplicate copies. Make sure the policies are still in force. Any defunct policies should be destroyed to avoid confusion later.
- Review the policy to determine who the owner is.The policy may be owned by your mother or father but cannot be owned jointly.
- Determine the beneficiary or beneficiaries. Usually a beneficiary statement is attached to the policy. If the beneficiary was ever changed a new beneficiary statement should have been sent to your parent as owner. The owner can change the beneficiary at any time. Each policy has a provision for primary beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries. If the primary beneficiary is not alive proceeds would go to the contingent beneficiary. Each Policy may have multiple primary and contingent beneficiaries. Make sure the beneficiaries are listed as your parents want them. If not ask them to contact the company to get forms to change the beneficiaries. Make sure they always list a contingent as well as primary beneficiary to any policy.
Click HERE to read the full story via Forbes.
Originally Posted at Forbes on March 22, 2019 by Robert Mauterstock.
Categories: Industry Articles