- 3 -
On December 17, 1943, decedent married Audrey Shovan Burris
(Mrs. Burris). The couple resided in Louisiana, a community
property state, throughout their marriage and did not enter into
a matrimonial or other agreement separating the spouses in
property. During their marriage, between 1987 and 1988, decedent
applied for and obtained three policies of insurance on his life:
First Colony Life Insurance Policy No. 1319100, First Colony Life
Insurance Policy No. 1330053, and Pacific Standard Life Insurance
Policy No. 30L0174116. Each was a single premium policy for
which the premiums of $150,000, $34,504.32, and $243,000,
respectively, were paid with community funds. The policies each
provided for payment of a specified death benefit amount and
additionally accumulated a cash surrender value. The contract
terms also permitted loans against the policies. Effective May
11, 1994, Pacific Standard Policy No. 30L0174116 was taken over
by Hartford Life Insurance Company as Policy No. UM0174116.
Decedent was identified as the owner and as the insured with
respect to each of the insurance policies.1 The initial named
beneficiary was Mrs. Burris, and such designation was not made to
be irrevocable. According to the policy terms, the owner was
1 We note that the record does not contain the complete
contract of insurance for either the Pacific Standard policy or
its successor Hartford Life policy. However, as neither party
has intimated that the terms of these policies differed in any
material way from those of the First Colony policies, we assume
that the First Colony contracts are representative and that
relevant provisions were substantially identical.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011