Advance Life Insurance Loan Never Taken From Life Insurance Payout 6 Yrs Ago – Help?

I understand that this is going to be very specific, but any general insight would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea what to do or who to go to for assistance.

My mother died in 2018. Her life insurance paid out in 2018.

In 2014 she took out an advance/living benefits loan out on this life insurance to live on while she was sick. This loan was supposed to be paid back after she died from the remainder of the life insurance. The loan agreement says “the life benefit will be used as collateral to secure repayment of the loan together with interest”. To me this means that beneficiaries should not have been paid out until the insurance company took the advance loan plus any interest off of the total.

Today my deceased mother received a letter from the life insurance company almost 6 years after she died saying that she still owes this advance loan and that it has collected ~$30,000 interest (I am the executor so I opened it). This letter says that they will stop charging interest when she passes. Again, she died and they paid out in 2018. We have never been contacted for this loan repayment since she died and any interest should have stopped in 2018 when we notified them of her death. This loan also was supposed to be taken from the remainder of the life insurance as mentioned above before we were paid out.

I am so confused how this is happening now, so many years later. This letter was addressed to her, not her estate and reads as if she is living. I am hoping that this is a mistake of the insurance company and not the fault of the beneficiaries? Are the beneficiaries now obligated to come up with the loan amount and the interest? It would be close to 100k. Is there anything that the beneficiary’s can do to not have to pay this back as it was supposed to be taken from the insurance payout amount before we were paid?

At least do you think I can I talk ourselves out of the interest that has been growing since 2018/after she died since it says it would stop after she “passes”?

Any insight or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.