Q. My ex died recently and I just learned our daughter is not named as a beneficiary in his will. She is only 11 years old.  He had two life insurance policies, one of which is in my name for Olivia’s benefit and will cover his child support obligations until she is about 18 but not his contribution to her extra-curricular activities, college costs and health insurance – the coverage is about half of what we agreed it would be. The other life insurance policy in the same amount goes to his girlfriend.

Is there anything I can do to get money from his estate to cover his obligations for activities, college and health insurance for our daughter or if not, can I claim both life insurance policies for our daughter?

A. You should consult a family law attorney as soon as possible. Without reading the agreement, I cannot be as specific as I would like to be. Often times there are provisions in a divorce agreement about insufficiency of life insurance including a claim against his estate. Just as often are provisions for equitable substitution which means in the event your ex is under-insured for the amount he is obligated to maintain for your daughter, but he has obtained another life insurance policy to benefit someone else, that second policy can essentially be redirected to you for your daughter’s benefit.

You will want to act very quickly, because if the insurance proceeds are already paid out to the girlfriend, who knows what she will do with them. The insurance company will just payout the proceeds of the policy to the named beneficiary unless and until they receive some sort of notice objecting to their doing so.

You should also bring a copy of the will to the lawyer you meet with. That lawyer will be able determine if he disinherited your daughter in the proper way. He would need to specifically exclude her from inheriting anything in order to properly disinherit her. If he just neglected to mention her, you can challenge the will on her behalf because she has certain entitlements to a portion of his estate by law.

You may have to hire two lawyers – one to deal with the life insurance claim from a divorce law perspective and also a probate lawyer who can object to the will from the disinheritance perspective.

Email questions to whickey@brickjones.com