My girlfriend’s mother just passed unexpectedly this week. She hasn’t updated her will since the mid 80s, she had no medical directive, and seemingly did not have her life insurance long enough that they would cover anything, they are just refunding what she has paid to the present.

This has us both thinking about getting ourselves set up properly just in case. We haven’t paid it much mind until now as we don’t have all that much, and no kids, but now that we are seeing the difficulty not having those things brings when people least need added stress, we want to start pursuing it.

What have you done to prepare your family for these types of events and how did you determine what sort of insurance and plans you needed for your situation. Also have you ever either had to deal with a relative leaving no plans behind, or did someone do something that made the situation much easier?

  • andrewta@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    The only advice I have is talk to an attorney about your girlfriend mom. Refunding the premiums sounds shady as hell.

    I used to be a life insurance salesman. I’ve never heard of a company saying they wouldn’t pay because you didn’t have the life insurance longenough.

    • chillinit@lemmynsfw.com
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      10 days ago

      Sounds like you were a salesman either more than fifteen years ago or you didn’t have access to sell predatory products. This too has been slowly enshitifed since the partial repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act.

      • andrewta@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Both actually.

        Got the license about 2005 let the license go about 2015 . Not mentioning the name, but it was a good company to work for.

        Had good product. You pay one premium you were covered.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 days ago

      They are dealing with the attorney already, as her mom had rental properties and a business in the middle of being sold, and a special needs dependant, so there is a huge list of things we need professional help navigating. I didn’t seem like they figured anything out different about the life insrance though. I know that was one of the topics they were going over yesterday and it didn’t sound like they got anywhere with that other than her coming home and say “F- Mutual of Omaha!”

      • andrewta@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I was going to ask what company it was , thank you for saying. And now I know which company to never touch. Again thank you for letting me know.

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
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          9 days ago

          That was one of the reasons I asked the mod if we could undo locking the thread. I felt there were a lot of us confused by how things work and I don’t want me and my fiance or anyone else here to get tricked at a time of real hardship.

          The amount of “payout” is maybe going to cover half the funeral luncheon. The funeral itself is almost 4x that, and her and her sisters get to pay for it all.

          I get their rule to an extent, but if it isn’t a universal rule, it’s something you all should be aware of.