This 33-Year-Old Took Out A Life Insurance Plan To Help Support His Future Wife. He Died Before The Wedding, And Now His Parents Won't Share The Money
For many people who are thinking about starting a family or already have one, taking out a life insurance plan offers a little peace of mind. Nobody likes to think about their own death too much, but having life insurance helps guarantee that your loved ones will still be able to afford their housing, pay off debts or medical bills you left behind, and are just all-around taken care of.
And that was the plan one Reddit user's son had when he took out a life insurance plan with his girlfriend and future family in mind. Unfortunately, though, he unexpectedly died. Now, his father and mother are questioning whether they're right to keep all of the insurance payout for themselves.
Note: The original story was shared by u/GrievingDad26 on the Am I the Asshole subreddit, but the post was removed by Reddit's spam filter. The post and responses have been archived by moderators for viewing.
Here's the story in the father's words:
"My son Eric passed away in an accident in October of last year. He was 33. He wasn't married, but he lived with his girlfriend (Emily) of only two years. She just turned 30. They purchased their home together in June of last year. The house was $525,000, and they put down $225,000. They each paid half of the down payment and had been splitting the mortgage equally, as well as all of the rest of their bills," the father explained.
"She makes about $80,000 per year after taxes. The house mortgage is $1,775 per month."
"My son has a life insurance policy that paid out $750,000. About six months before he passed, my son mentioned that he was 'thinking about proposing,' but it would 'be a few years before we actually married.' In a later conversation, he mentioned plans to update his life insurance because he wouldn't want to leave a wife with nothing. That's all that was ever said about it — obviously, he passed before he ever decided to propose. This means the entire life insurance went to me and my wife."
"My wife and I are both in our late 50s. We usually do OK financially, but losing our son has completely shaken our worlds, and we've been taking some time off of work to process and grieve," he continued. "This money will allow us to pay off the rest of our mortgage, take stress off of our lives while we grieve, and hopefully retire a couple years earlier than we intended — we both have medical struggles so this is a big deal."
"Our other son, Mike, came over for dinner yesterday, and we mentioned that we received Eric's life insurance payout. He went quiet for a minute and asked how much we're going to give Emily. We explained that we have good intentions to use the money to make our lives easier going forward — this is why our son left it to us, to help out should anything tragic happen. Later, Mike said he understands that we're grieving, but we're selfish and narcissistic for not considering how tough this is for Emily and not even helping her by giving her enough to pay off Eric's share of the house."
"He said we're kidding ourselves if we think Eric would have wanted this. I've tried to keep emotions out of it and stick to the facts. All of us — my wife, son, rest of the family, and Emily — are absolutely devastated by Eric's passing. I don't want people to think I'm heartless."
TLC / Via giphy.com
After reading the post, commenters immediately tried knocking sense into the father. They reiterated that the life insurance was taken out with his son's girlfriend specifically in mind so that she wouldn't struggle in the son's absence — and now the parents are leaving her high and dry.
"The 'purpose' of life insurance is to replace the income lost that a deceased loved one would’ve contributed," user u/Fittest_Hypnotist said. "He was contributing to his household with his girlfriend. Unless he was paying your bills, he wasn’t contributing to yours. His girlfriend needs the money to maintain her current lifestyle. You are trying to enhance yours with it. You are being selfish. It’s crazy you won’t give her anything."
Emphasizing this point, others called the father and mother selfish and deplorable for so easily casting their intended daughter-in-law aside.
"The father literally had a conversation with the deceased about his intent to propose," user u/pinpoe said. "Now, he's tossing this grieving woman who was becoming part of his family to the side just because some fatty dollar signs flew his way? She built a fucking life with your son, supported and nurtured and loved him, and altered the course of her life for him. But yeah. Enjoy your paid-off mortgage, you monster."
However, not everyone felt as though Emily was entitled to the full $750,000. In the wake of a tragedy that rocked everyone in the family, some users felt the parents should split the money with her.
"Eric's half of the house would be $150k. There may be other debts that he shared with Emily that he left behind, so let's round that number up to an even $200k. That's a very generous estimate," user u/tan_sandoval said. "So, doing right by Emily would cost you $200k. You received $750k. It SHOULD be a no-brainer to do the right thing by Emily. You know it's what your son would have wanted; you still walk with $550k, and now you know Emily is not in a difficult situation financially. If $550k isn't enough for you that you still need to grasp at that last $200k and leave the woman your son wanted to marry in a bad situation, you need to have a look in the mirror."
Splitting, people said, is the least they could do — especially when considering that Eric intended for her to have all of it.
"I can see keeping some of it, BUT KEEPING THE WHOLE THING? Eric's most obvious immediate responsibility is to his girlfriend, in terms of their mortgage and his normal 50% of expenses. I would say anything less than 50% of the payout going to her would be an asshole move," u/rpsls added. "And if [your] son had lived long enough to actually do the update he’d planned on, it would have been all of it, and maybe he would have left instructions to his girlfriend to help his parents. So, imagine what you might fairly expect from her if the situation was reversed."
And though no one argued that Eric's brother should be given a portion, they did feel like this would be a make or break moment between his brother and their parents.
"The father needs to realize that if they DON'T give something to Emily, they're jeopardizing their relationship with their other son. He's going to change how he looks at his parents based on there actions now," u/StrangledInMoonlight said.
