Welty v. Retirement Board, 2017 UT App 26 (Feb. 9, 2017)

Feb 9, 2017

Decedent was required under a divorce decree to designate petitioner as his life insurance beneficiary until their minor children reached the age of 18, but he had violated the order and changed the beneficiary to his current spouse shortly before he died.  The insurer paid the death benefit to the designated beneficiary, and six years later the ex-wife sought an order requiring benefits to be paid to her.  The court held thatthe plain language of the applicable statute required PEHP to pay life insurance benefits to the man’s last named beneficiary, which it had done, and the divorce decree was not part of the insurance contract, so no second payment was required.