Life Insurance Beneficiary Dispute – Father-in-law vs Young Widow

Hello everyone,

My husband passed away last month at a very young age and we have two small children under 4. I had been calling my husband’s life insurance company for over a month looking to receive the paperwork and couldn’t understand why it was taking so long.

Today I discovered – to my horror – that his parents had been lying to me throughout this whole process. My husband initially put his father as the beneficiary when he started med school in 2013 and unfortunately forgot to have this changed after we were married. My husband even told me where to find the policy papers in case he passed so this is a massive shock.

Separately, my father-in-law took out a small policy on my husband when he was a kid and my husband fought tooth and nail with him to have the beneficiary (his father) replaced with me and for us to take on this policy. His father is using this against me now, saying I don’t need the additional money from his med school policy. My husband was a physician so this is supposed to be income replacement to support his family…not pay off his parent’s immense debt and poor financial choices. They are fully aware of my husband’s wishes and I am disgusted that this is how they are honouring his legacy.

My question to you, is if there is anything at all that can be done about this? I understand that they are legally entitled to this but I am praying there is some sort of strange loophole somewhere. His father is going to spend this money on a truck when this should be supporting our kids after this massive loss of stability and income. My husband made his wishes known to his whole family if that means anything at all.

Thank you in advance so much for any advice!

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ETA: I’m not sure this will help in any way, but I had been off on maternity leave and then was a caregiver to my husband over the past year while he was sick with a cancer relapse.