Wondering How to Use Your Position as Power of Attorney to Change a Life Insurance Policy’s Beneficiaries? We’ll Tell you How

If you are the power of attorney for another person, as set out by their will, there may come a situation where you have to make decisions on their behalf. If the person for which you are power of attorney becomes incapacitated and cannot make a decision or take an action themselves, this is where you come in. Such a situation may arise where a power of attorney needs to change the life insurance beneficiaries on the person’s policy. In order to do so, there are some steps they will need to follow:

The first step to changing life insurance beneficiaries when you are the power of attorney is to write a letter that explains to the insurance company that you are the insured’s power of attorney and that you wish to make changes to the beneficiaries on their policy for such and such reasons. Be as clear as possible as to why you wish to make these changes. It’s likely, too, that the insurance company will ask you to prove your status as power of attorney, so have any legal documents you may need, ready.

Next, you will need to contact the insurance company and either request that they send you a form on which you will explain the beneficiary changes or the provider may direct you to their website where you can print off the required form. In order to fill it out, you will need to know a number of details with regards to each beneficiary, including their social security number and birth date. It’s a good idea to work out these details with the person for which you are power of attorney early on, before they may be in a position where they can no longer do so. You will also need to know which percentage of the policy’s death benefit will go to which individual and to enter this onto the form.

Lastly, you will submit all of this paperwork to the life insurance company and wait for them to contact you with any follow-up questions that they have.

If you require more information on how to go about changing the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy when you’re the power of attorney, contact TermLife-Insurance.com and speak to one of their agents.