The beneficiary of a life insurance policy is up to the owner of the policy. If you take out a policy and want to donate the final payout to the charity of your choice, it is your right to do so. How the charity receives the payout will have an effect on…

In North Carolina, as well as most other states, the money paid on a life insurance is not classified as income tax. Similarly, dividends paid on a life insurance policy are considered a return on the premium and not taxed. With these two generalizations…

Except for certain circumstances, life insurance companies must pay the death benefits when a claim is filed. Those circumstances, in a majority of cases, fall into one of two categories: fraud or exclusions written into the policy. Exclusions are part of…

Yes, the insurance company can change the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, but only with the written consent of the owner of the insurance policy. The owner of the policy may be different than the person insured, but no changes can be made to the beneficiary…

There are many legitimate reasons for challenging the beneficiary on a life insurance policy. One such example might be an heir that was born after the policy was written, and the policy was not updated to reflect the new family member. The main problem with…

The beneficiary on a life insurance policy can be anyone the policy owner wants it to be, including children, grandchildren or even an employer. The primary concern for the insurance company is that the owner of the policy has and insurable interest, regardless…

There is a particular type of term life insurance known as mortgage insurance. This type of coverage has a pay out value that decreases as it gets older, and then expires after a predetermined period of years. Typically, the insurance policy is tied to the…

Under some policies, suicide is an insured event, and the policy will be paid in the event of the insured person's death. This is not always the case, and it is important to review the policy in question to find out what the suicide clause in it may be. Because…

Certainly, it is more appropriate to name the beneficiary in the policy, but naming them in your will is also possible. To give you a better illustration of why you might want to do such a thing, consider parents of minor children. One parent takes out the…

If the insurance company has current contact information for the beneficiary on file, they will contact that person when it becomes apparent that a claim needs to be settled. They are not obligated to track down a person, and account will go unsettled for…