No one wants to think about the tragic loss of a loved one, but if it happens, there are often issues that must be resolved in the following months. If a parent who owes child support dies, there are obligations that remain in place, since the children still need the same amount of help regardless of the unfortunate loss of their parent. Pat White will explain the life insurance obligations that a child support obligor may have.
The attorneys at Pat White are experienced in resolving child support and family law cases in the greater Tarrant County including Fort Worth, Benbrook, Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain, Saginaw, Blue Mound, Weatherford, Azle, Granbury, Aledo, and Surrounding Areas. If you have questions regarding the life insurance and other obligations you may have in supporting your child, contact a family law attorney in Fort Worth to schedule a free consultation. We are dedicated to helping you through the difficult processes involved in divorce, child support, and other family law.
The duty to support a child exists until a child reaches the age of 18 or stops attending high school. If the child is disabled before his 18th birthday, this obligation can last even longer than that. This duty exists whether the parent who owes the child support is alive or passes away before the child’s 18th birthday.
When the parent who owes child support dies, his child support obligation does not die with him. Instead, it accelerates and is due immediately. The child support payments will become a claim against the deceased parent’s estate.
In some cases, the court may order the parent making child support payments to secure life insurance, to cover the amount of child support that would become due if the parent were to die. The purpose of ordering the parent to buy life insurance is to insure that the child support obligation will be covered, even if the estate does not have enough money to pay the child support claim.
The court will not order a parent to buy life insurance in every case. If you have few assets, or the court has reason to believe that your estate will not have enough money to pay your obligation after you die, then it is more likely it will order you to buy life insurance.
In either case, our attorneys encourage all parents to buy life insurance to protect their children in the event that something happens to the parent before the child reaches eighteen.
Your children will still need help in the unfortunate case of your death. If you're a parent in the greater Fort Worth area who has a question concerning your child support life insurance obligations, contact the experienced family law attorneys at Pat White for a free consultation. We are happy to answer your call at or respond to your queries via our online contact form and schedule a meeting to discuss the details of your case.
