A plain-English legal reference
When more than one person claims the same money, interpleader decides who gets it.
Clear, source-cited guides to interpleader lawsuits and the life insurance, bank account, and benefit disputes behind them. Written for the people caught in the middle.
Published by Interpleader Law, a law firm that represents people in interpleader cases and life insurance disputes.
Guides
Start with the basics
Each guide cites the statutes, rules, and decisions it relies on.
How interpleader works
What is an interpleader action?
Who files, why, the two stages of a case, and what interpleader cannot do.
Start hereStatutory vs. Rule 22
The two federal routes compared: amount, diversity, deposit, service, and venue.
Federal procedureDischarge, fees, and interest
How the stakeholder is released, when it is paid fees, and how the fund earns interest.
The moneyIf you are involved
Named in an interpleader?
Deadlines, default, your answer, and what happens after the company steps out.
Step by stepHow a claim freezes payment
Why a competing claim stops payment, and what the named beneficiary can do.
DisputesWithout a lawyer
The rules that apply to people representing themselves, the risks, and where to find help.
Step by stepWhat the disputes are about
Life insurance disputes
Ex-spouse beneficiaries, divorce statutes, and federal rules for ERISA, FEGLI, and SGLI.
AssetsBank account disputes
Joint and payable-on-death accounts, freezes, and the statutes that protect banks.
AssetsWhy beneficiary disputes happen
Divorce, disputed changes, undue influence, the slayer rule, and simultaneous deaths, with court examples.
DisputesHow it works
An interpleader case in four steps
Competing claims
An insurer, bank, or other holder receives two or more claims to the same money and cannot safely pay either one. A competing claim can be as simple as a letter or email, which is often enough to stop payment. See how a claim freezes payment.
Filing and deposit
The holder sues all claimants, deposits the fund with the court, and asks to be released.
Discharge
The court decides whether interpleader is proper and may dismiss the holder, sometimes awarding it fees from the fund.
Claimants resolve it
The claimants litigate or settle, and the court orders the fund paid out.
Case library
Decisions that shape these disputes
386 U.S. 523 (1967)
State Farm v. Tashire
Minimal diversity is enough, but interpleader protects the fund, not every related lawsuit.
532 U.S. 141 (2001)
Egelhoff v. Egelhoff
State revocation-on-divorce laws are preempted for ERISA plans.
555 U.S. 285 (2009)
Kennedy v. DuPont Plan Administrator
ERISA administrators pay according to the plan documents.
569 U.S. 483 (2013)
Hillman v. Maretta
FEGLI proceeds belong to the named beneficiary.
584 U.S. 811 (2018)
Sveen v. Melin
Revocation-on-divorce statutes can apply to older policies.
454 U.S. 46 (1981)
Ridgway v. Ridgway
SGLI designations prevail over a state constructive trust.
How we write
- Every legal statement is tied to a statute, rule, or opinion.
- Quotations are checked against the primary source. Editorial policy