Q: Sadly my ex husband has terminal cancer and i discovered he has failed to maintain the life insurance policy
Ordered in Final divorce judgment. We were married 20 yrs and our divorce was final in 2012. He remarried in 2016. Upon his passing do i have a legal right to his estate for the amount the insurance policy would of payed out in the event of his death?
A: The answer depends on the specific language in your divorce judgment. You should contact an attorney right away to review your options, including whether you can make a claim against his estate for the value of the life insurance obligation. If he is remarried and owns all property jointly with his new wife, then he may not even have an estate to probate.
Joanne Reisman agrees with this answer
A: Generally I only see life insurance ordered in a divorce as a guarantee that spousal support and child support will get paid through the life insurance if the spouse paying support dies before he finishes paying all the support. So if the life insurance was contingent on there being unpaid support, and you spouse no longer is ordered to pay support, he may not have a duty to still have life insurance. Also, there is a way to notify the life insurance company by sending them a copy of the divorce decree so that when payments aren't made you get notified. If you had an attorney and the attorney failed to do this step. the attorney might have committed malpractice. You should get a copy of your divorce decree from the court (it doesn't need to be certified) and go and discuss this issue with an attorney as quickly as possible. There may still be time to fix this.
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