My father (with whom I have a distant relationship with) changed his life insurance to name me sole and primary beneficiary.
I have longed wanted to change my name, first and last.
If I did so, would it effect me getting the life insurance?
Also, if I changed my name, is there any way he wouldn’t be able to find out?
Name change affecting insurance payment: Legally no. Practically … maybe.
A typical insurance beneficiary form will include name, address, relationship, and SSN. And should be kept up to date by the insured as the addresses or names of any beneficiary changes. Exactly which forms his insurance company uses and exactly how well Dad keeps them up are not questions any of us can answer.
If the only thing the insurance company knows is “Daddy Mercury’s policy pays out to my son Reddy Mercury”, and some day your Dad dies and you don’t hear about it for a couple years after that, the odds are very good the insurance company won’t be able to find you.
We also don’t know if you know which insurance company it is, what the policy number is, etc. The more you know, the more you can help them find you whether dad cooperates, doesn’t cooperate, or is deceased and can’t cooperate. Once you know how to find them you can help them find and identify you.
Your paperwork from the name change process will link your new name to the old you. That’ll work fine for the insurance company once they get that stuff from you. Make darn sure you never lose the recorded original documents.
I don’t follow your last question at all. Are you wanting to prevent Dad from learning your new name? Or ensure he does learn of it so he can update the beneficiary forms? How much do you think he wants to learn your new name? Etc. I can’t make any sense of your question.
I’m not following either. If you change your name, have your father update the policy and will. If you have no contact with him and don’t want to have contact it may be more difficult.
If you will be informed of his death, then you should be able to get the necessary information such as insurance policy at that time.
Our family has a problem in that my younger brother is homeless and only communicates by leaving scribbled notes under a stone in the yard of a neighbor. We have no idea if he can be contacted in the event something happens.