Life Insurance & Probate

[Kitsopher]

I am making an assumption, so please correct me, my parents have two wills which do not come into effect until they are both deceased. Sadly my Mum has already passed thru life and her will was not open to probate upon her death. Although I have no proof, given extravagant actions of my father, after her death I think he profited from her life insurance policy and I am sure that was all part of his grieving process, poor guy, they were together for over sixty years.
In the instance of my father dying, does his life insurance policy payout become part of overall probate? Does the insurance company charge to release the funds?
If a sole heir is named beneficiary in the life insurance policy which places that heir in a superior position to effectively "buy-out" all of the assets in the legacy, can that be challenged during probate if there are substantive inequities evident in the distribution of wealth to their direct heirs?
I think that this is all very complicated despite all the illuminating posts I have read I remain ill at ease. Your joint perspectives would be gratefully acknowledged.

[MissFM]

Re: Life Insurance & Probate

Dear Kitsopher.

There are experts on this site who are not insomniacs and will appear later in the day to help you, but in the meantime, a non-legal view:-

Depending on what you mean by "my parents have 2 wills":

- the most common arrangement would be that they had "mirror" wills. This may not be the case, but if it were (as would appear to be likely if there was no probate necessary for your Mum) then your father will have inherited everything from your mother and, to be blunt, it is nobody's business but his what he does with it - neither will he have had to pay inheritance tax.

- you do, however, appear to suggest that your mother's will cannot be actioned until your father's death - or have I misunderstood? That does seem more unusual (unless there is a Trust? Or a gift on the 7 year rule?) If you can clarify this it will help people here to help you more quickly.

- again, my understanding: a life insurance policy will have a named beneficiary to whom the money will be paid, and normally it would be theirs absolutely - your post suggests something different - please could you explain?

- if there are trusts involved that is much more complicated and if you want advice on that you do need to be more specific and it may be outside the scope of a forum.

- there may have been more complicated arrangements to avoid inheritance tax if your father's estate will be over the minimum (ie more than £325,00) when he dies. If you want reliable advice on this you do need to be more specific and, again, it may not be something that can be dealt with on a forum.

- usually, probate and inheritance are not that difficult especially if planned by the deceased. It's a bit hard to understand what you mean above about your father "profiting from" your mother's life insurance. That would be normal if he were the beneficiary - please would you explain the issues you are questioning?

If you can boil it down a bit to specific questions it's much easier for people to help.

[Kitsopher]

Re: Life Insurance & Probate

At the moment it's all very nebulous. As was my post, forgive please as I am in a steep learning curve. From what I understand is that there are trusts involved, the nature of them has not been specified to me, so shall return when I am better informed. A gracious thank you for your response. I don't wish to waste anyone's time on this so perhaps the thread should be closed.