Survivor benefit

[Chulke]

Ok...so here's the situation...my wife's uncle recently passed and he was a retired secret service agent. Little known to the rest of the family was that he had a tsp account, and I know he had to have had a healthy sum of money in this account because he told me once he was getting like $6k a month from it. That's besides the point but, he lost his wife about 7 years ago, and re-married about 5 years ago. Now it had long been rumored that my wife was named his beneficiary on the tsp account because he had no kids of his own.

My questions are:

is there anyway to find out who his beneficiary was?

If it was changed?

And how and when does that benefit get paid?

and where does this benefit come from, is it the remainder of what's left in his tsp account?



Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated....


Cheers!

 

[Chulke]

I just realized that my previous post sounds like I'm money hungry and cold....that is not my intention. My concern is his current widow. Their marriage was somewhat suspect from the get go...as she's been married 3-4 times each of whom has since died and she was the widow. I'm not saying she's a black widow or anything...but that thought has been brought up. Hence the reason for asking the questions.

So I guess you could say its cold, I mean the man did just die recently making her the grieving widow but, if she was named as the beneficiary it calls into question her motives for marrying him. And towards the end the man was losing his memory so, I just have reservations about her true intentions.

I hope I'm wrong, but what if I'm right? How would you feel?

 

[driz]

I rather doubt that they will furnish you with that information directly. I would think whoever is designated the Executor of his estate would be the one who could gain access. That is where I would start.

 

[Chulke]

Yeah that's kinda what I was thinking too...:notrust:

 

[WorkFE]

Also, if your wife is the sole beneficiary any estate settlement would have to go through her by the Executor of the estate. At some point they will have to apply for survivor benefits.
FWIW- I know alot of folks that discontinued survivor benefits when their beneficiary passes away before them. I am making an assumption that it was origionally his wife and that your wife was rumored to have been named after she passed. I know from my own planning that my beneficiary does not have to use rumors as they are already aware of my intentions. Just a thought.