I've never heard of this in my 30 years in the insurance business. It doesn't sound like a real insurance product.
In general, no. You only need a beneficiary for life insurance.
Yes, you can have a secondary beneficiary on your life insurance policy. If the primary beneficiary is no longer living when you pass away, the secondary beneficiary would receive the proceeds from your life insurance policy.
No, the spouse is not. The beneficiary is named. There are laws that require the spouse to sign an acknowledgement that there is life insurance that she is not the beneficiary of.
beneficiary
The Insured can change the beneficiary on a life insurance contract.
The owner of a life insurance policy has the right to choose the beneficiary. Another person has no power to change that choice.
When referring to life insurance, a beneficiary is a person specified by the contract holder. This beneficiary will receive the benefits if the primary beneficiary has died at the time the benefit is to be paid.
The purchaser of an insurance policy names the beneficiary.
In regards to life insurance, contingent usually means secondary. For example a contingent beneficiary is a secondary beneficiary, not the primary beneficiary. The contingent beneficiary would receive the proceeds from a life insurance policy if the primary beneficiary were not alive when the insured person dies.
When a life insurance policy is purchased, the purchaser (usually the insured) designates a primary beneficiary and a contingent beneficiary. The contingent beneficiary gets the proceeds if the primary beneficiary predeceases the insured. The insured can name a new primary beneficiary by contacting the insurance company or the insurance agent. THIS IS ONLY TRUE FOR PURCHASED LIFE POLICIES___ NOT POLICIES THROUGH AN EMPLOYER UNDER ERISA.
Yes. A secondary beneficiary only becomes beneficiary if the primary beneficiary dies before the insured. Say the insured and primary beneficiary are involved in a fatal auto accident but the insured dies an hour before the primary beneficiary. The insurance proceeds would not go to the secondary beneficiary but to the estate of the primary beneficiary. If the primary beneficiary dies an hour before the insured then the secondary beneficiary receives the proceeds. If an insured wants both to receive monies they can name more than one person as primary beneficiary and in what percentage for each person. They could also leave it to their estate and handle distribution by a will.
Not if they found out.