West Virginia: Beneficiary Disputes and Interpleader Under West Virginia Law

No automatic revocation

The divorce section of this page is short because West Virginia’s rule is short. The Fourth Circuit stated: “In West Virginia, there is no statute that automatically revokes a beneficiary interest in an ex-spouse’s life insurance policy upon divorce”.¹ It noted that W. Va. Code § 41-1-6 provides for automatic revocation of a former spouse’s interests under a will, and quoted the state’s highest court that “spousal forfeiture is purely a creature of statute”.¹

So the question is waiver. In Baker, the former wife remained the named beneficiary. In the settlement agreement she gave up her rights to life insurance on the insured’s life, but the same subsection let him change the beneficiary. He never did. His daughter, the contingent beneficiary, argued that the agreement waived the former wife’s interest, and the district court agreed. The Fourth Circuit reversed: “we conclude, as a matter of law, that the PSA is ambiguous regarding whether Patricia waived her beneficiary interest in the proceeds of Frank’s life insurance policy.”² The case was remanded to decide whether the ambiguity means there was no waiver, or whether extrinsic evidence should be considered.

This is the opposite of the default in the many states that follow the Uniform Probate Code, such as Minnesota and South Dakota. If the policy is under an ERISA plan, plan documents control either way; see ERISA post-distribution claims.

Substantial compliance with the change form

Curkendall came from a business buyout. The insured had named his two business partners as beneficiaries. When the partnership ended in 2001, he signed the insurer’s change form naming his wife and handed it to the insurer’s agent, but the insurer never processed it. When he died, his widow and one former partner both claimed; the other partner defaulted. Judge Keeley held: “It is consequently clear beyond peradventure that, as a matter of law, he ‘at least substantially followed’ the conditions of the Policy relating to a change of beneficiary.”³ The widow took the proceeds. See change-of-beneficiary disputes.

	Baker (4th Cir. 2019)	Curkendall (N.D. W. Va. 2013)
Named beneficiary	Former wife	Former business partners
Challenger	Contingent beneficiary (insured’s daughter)	Widow
Theory	Waiver in settlement agreement	Substantial compliance
Result	Ambiguous; remanded	Widow wins as a matter of law

Related guides

• State law differences
• Divorce and beneficiary designations
• Wyoming

Footnotes

1. Baker v. Baker, No. 18-2058, slip op. at 7 & n.4 (4th Cir. Dec. 11, 2019) (unpublished) (quoting Petition of Shiflett, 490 S.E.2d 902, 909 (W. Va. 1992)). GovInfo. See W. Va. Code § 41-1-6. ↩ ↩²

2. Baker, slip op. at 14. ↩

3. Transamerica Life Ins. Co. v. Curkendall, No. 1:12CV87, slip op. at 8 (N.D. W. Va. Jan. 17, 2013). GovInfo. ↩