He’s Keeping His Brother’s Life Insurance Because It’s A Substantial Amount Of Money, And He Doesn’t Want To Share Any Of It With His Brother’s Wife Or Kids
This 40-year-old man sadly lost his 42-year-old brother Jay in a car accident several months back.
He says that when he and Jay were little, Jay was clearly the favorite of the two of them. Jay ended up attending a prestigious college on a full ride, whereas he had to pay for college all on his own.
Not long after getting accepted into college, he ended up dropping out. Then, Jay went to grad school, but he settled down and married his wife Brittany pretty quickly.
He and Brittany have really struggled financially, and they were never able to have children because of that.
They still have money problems, and they live paycheck to paycheck. They also can only afford to live in a one-bedroom apartment. In contrast, Jay never struggled the way that he and Brittany have had to.
“Jay always made good money but wasn’t lucky in love,” he explained. “He was very picky, and while he had some longer 1-2 year relationships, he was looking for perfection before getting married. He finally married his wife, 40F, Mary, in 2019.”
“She also made good money, like Jay. She also had 2 children from a previous relationship, now 18 and 19. One is in college, and the other will be starting next year. She and Jay also had twin girls about a year ago. Mary and Jay both worked and have a nanny they share with a neighbor for their girls.”
“When they got pregnant, she sold her house where they were living, and he sold his condo that he had been renting out, and they bought a larger family home together. All this is to say money is not a problem for them.”
When Jay passed away, he got Jay’s life insurance money. Mary actually had no clue that he was listed as the beneficiary of Jay’s 401k as well.
Volodymyr – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
All in, he got $150,000 from Jay’s life insurance, but as for the 401k, it’s pretty much a ton of money. Jay ended up creating his 401k many years ago and well before he even met Mary. Jay never wound up changing Mary over to be the beneficiary of that.
“Mary begged me to give her a portion of the money, but I said no,” he said. “She inherited his part of their house and their joint savings account, which is about 50k.”
“She said that she paid for his funeral, and to make it work on her income alone, she will have to sell the house, give up the nanny, put the girls in daycare, and won’t be able to help her older kids with college the way they planned.”
“I told her it’s not my fault. If he wanted to change the beneficiary, he should have done that. But he didn’t, so now the money is mine. My wife and I plan to use the money to buy a home and finally start a family. She says her husband’s money should go to his children, but she doesn’t see that me using the money to have my own children is more important.”
As for his mom and dad, they genuinely think he’s a terrible person for keeping Jay’s money instead of giving it to Jay’s children. After that, he said he was happy to take out $50,000 from the money he inherited and place it in a trust fund for Jay’s twins when they go to college.
Mary was not happy with his offer and pointed out that she needs money ASAP. If he gave all of Jay’s life insurance to Mary, it could pay off the mortgage on their house, help afford to send the boys to college, and have some left over for when the girls attend college.
As for Mary’s income, that would make up the difference, and she would not be forced to move out of the house.
“But what about my family?” he wondered.
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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