Supreme Court Case Could Give Ex-Spouse Life Insurance Money

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For those of you who are divorced, do you know who is listed as your beneficiary on your life insurance policy? An interesting Minnesota law is being challenged in front of the United States Supreme Court.

Phil Kronebusch is a political science professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University. He says it is a case where the husband and wife got divorced, and then he died. However, he left his wife as the primary beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

Minnesota has a law that automatically revokes the ex-spouse as beneficiary of a life insurance policy when a divorce occurs.  So the children in Minnesota believe that the ex-wife should not get the life insurance proceeds and that is should come to them.

So, according to Minnesota law, the kids -- from a previous marriage -- are getting the money, not the ex-wife. She is challenging the law.

The U.S. Supreme Court Justices will hear the case at the end of this month and they start ruling on the cases they've heard in April.