I don't know if this is the right board for this, but I figured I would get some outside opinions before hiring an attorney to try collecting a relatively small sum.

My FIL had term life policy paperwork for both himself and my MIL. His policy was $5,000 and my MIL's was $10,000. When my MIL died we called Globe Life to verify the policy to pay the funeral expenses.

Globe life told us the policies were initiated in 2016, but no payments had ever been made on my MIL's policy AT ALL. They said all payments were for my FIL's policy only. Accordingly, they told us the policy had never been placed into effect and there were no insurance proceeds to collect.

We are now in the process of taking over my FIL's finances and a review of their banks statements shows that every single month for as long as statements are available online there was a single $13 charge from Globe Life. I agree that seems like it was a payment for only one of the two policies. However, the charge description has always been the same: "Globe Life - [MIL's Name]"

I think any reasonable person would believe these monthly payments were for my MIL's policy, since Globe Life directly described them with her name.

Should we just send them copies of every single bank statement and demand payment?

Was your MIL the owner of the policy on your FIL? In the life insurance world, the owner and insured are often two different people. It's possible your MIL took out the policy on your FIL and that's why they were billing it in her name.

Have no idea if that's what happened here but just throwing out an option that might be the easy explanation. Are there not paper copies of the policy on hand? If so, look for the "insured" person on the policy and the monthly premium amount. The $13 will probably be listed on his policy.

Not defending the life insurance company but they tend to keep pretty solid records and the courts have all pretty well lined out that they better pay when there's a claim. It doesn't go well for them when they try to dodge them, especially one that would be seven years old.

Happy to help if you need to dig into the paperwork further.

. Have you not checked what the premium is for FIL contract?

If her premiums have not been paid, then they won't pay a penny no matter what you send them.

Ask for a current policy illustration on FIL's policy …. That will confirm coverage and cost on his contract and may clear up the issue

LCE said:

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. Have you not checked what the premium is for FIL contract?

If her premiums have not been paid, then they won't pay a penny no matter what you send them.

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They did not keep good records of things, and the premium amounts that are handwritten on the paperwork show a $14 premium for her and a $12 premium for him. Nowhere do we see $13. My FIL threw away the paperwork for her as soon as Globe Life said the policy was not valid. So yeah, that makes this more difficult.

Neither of them understood any of this well enough to realize the automatic payment coming out of their bank account was only for one policy. They legit thought the payment was for both policies.

Sorry to hear that. Happens a lot. Just make sure FIL updates his bene info