Agent Owner, Gilmore Insurance Services, Marysville, Washington State
No, typically life insurance is not subject to probate as life insurance has a stated beneficiary. If the beneficiary of a policy is listed as "estate" then the proceeds would become part of the probate process. For most people a stated beneficiary is enough to keep policy proceeds out of the probate process.
Retirement Income Strategist, KJ Financial, Liberty, Missouri
Typically, when the beneficiaries of your life insurance policy are listed in the proper manner, the proceeds from life insurance pass to the listed beneficiaries directly. This means the process of the paying of any life insurance benefits happens outside the probate process.
I hope this helps. If you have anything more specific you'd like to ask. Please do.
In Canada, typically if the beneficiaries of the policy are individuals then the proceeds of the policy do not need to go through probate. If the beneficiary is the estate then the proceeds will have to be probated and subject to claims of creditors.
If you have further questions, or feel that I could be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you would like to work with a local life insurance broker, you could start with a Google search. For example, if you search for: life insurance broker Halifax or life insurance agent Halifax, my name, along with several others, will come up. You can use the same method to find a life insurance broker in your community.
Co-Founder, TermInsuranceBrokers.com, Goldenzweig Financial Group, Las Vegas, Nevada
If there is no beneficiary cited on a life insurance policy (or the beneficiary is the estate), the proceeds are paid to the estate. From there, they will go through the probate process if there is no instruction for how the proceeds are to be distributed - when this happens, the courts would decide how the estate is to be distributed.
If a beneficiary is designated, then the proceeds would be paid to that person(s)/entity rather than going through the probate process.
One of the big advantages of life insurance is that it does not have to go through probate. My father died about a year ago, and he had several small life insurance policies. My mom was truly surprised that she had quick access to those funds to pay for Dad's funeral, without having to wait for probate (which still has not been completed, as far as I know). And surprised again when she just found out for sure that she did not have to pay any taxes on them. No matter how much you trust your agent, it is collecting on life insurance that can make believers of anyone.
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I hope this helps. If you have anything more specific you'd like to ask. Please do.
If you have further questions, or feel that I could be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you would like to work with a local life insurance broker, you could start with a Google search. For example, if you search for: life insurance broker Halifax or life insurance agent Halifax, my name, along with several others, will come up. You can use the same method to find a life insurance broker in your community.
If a beneficiary is designated, then the proceeds would be paid to that person(s)/entity rather than going through the probate process.