Hi! I'm back! I just saw this message and thought I would weigh in. Normally, it would be that JY was the primary bene and Cassidy would be the contingent bene. In order for money to be held "in trust" for a child, there has to be an actual trust set up prior to the insured's death. If JY is a suspect (and the insurance co. will know if he is or not), there is no way the insurance proceeds will be paid out. If the bene agreement is like I think it is, above, then the money will be in limbo until either he is no longer considered as suspect or is convicted of the crime, then it would go to Cassidy as contingent bene.
I do not recommend naming your minor kids as bene's on your insurance policy unless you have no other choice because the payout process is complicated. There are usually 3 options for a minor bene (at least where I worked!): 1. If the amount of money is under a state guideline amount (obviously varies by state) then the money can be paid to a parent after they sign a form that basically says that they know the money is for their child, not them. This protects the ins. co. from future suits from the child when they grow up and realize they didn't get their money! 2. The money can be put into an interest bearing account by the ins. co. that stays there until the child turns the age of majority in their state. 3. Someone can go to court and have themselves appointed as a guardian for the minor and their finances. This is not as easy as it seems, and just because you are your child's parent, it does not mean that you can automatically receive the money. When you are court appointed, that means you are held responsible by the court for the money and where it goes. This is done to protect the interests of the child.
This is all dependent on who the bene is and whether or not a claim has even been made.
I'll repeat this about JY just in case anyone missed my previous post. I would love to know if her insurance co. has been contacted and if so, has money been paid out, because that would be the most telling information. If he is considered a suspect, there is no way he is going to get that money. Even if the detective tells the claims person at the ins. co. that they don't have enough evidence to charge yet, they will wait. I had one claim in particular where a guy and his son were suspects in the mother/grandmother's death and I was in regular contact with the detective to see how the case was going. The man's wife called me right before he was about to be charged and threatened to sue me (yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I never heard that before!). The detective asked me to stall payment because they were going to arrest them soon and it was going to go to trial. And, I was asked not to inform the bene or anyone else that called about that.
That job is why evil things that people do to each other do not surprise me anymore, and I will be surprised if JY is not eventually charged and convicted of MY's murder. I've found in my experience that usually the reasons why people murder are the most simple ones-money, infidelity, etc... People look for conspiracy theories and far-fetched scenarios when it's usually depressingly simple-for whatever reason, someone who they trusted wanted them dead.
Wow! I was long winded! Sorry! Everyone have a safe and wonderful holiday!!!!
BellGardin
