<prompt> Human: My mom died and the benficiary to her life insurance is her estranged, drug dealing ex-husband.I cant see my mother as letting this skip through the cracks, as she was very meticulous about future planning for me and her, and when they went through their divorce she got rid of everything to do with him, and removed his name from everything they had together.She recently passed away, and when I was talking to the life insurance person on the phone they said her ex-husband was still the primary beneficiary on the policy, I am named second. Is there anything I can do? I am 100 sure that if he is on there, it was an oversight by my mother and completely unintentional. He is estranged, probably does not even know she has passed, and probably wont even realize their is a policy to claim unless someone tells him.I asked if there is an amount of time that the policy would default to me if unclaimed by the primary beneficiary but the insurance agent was unable to tell me. Im in my early 20s and had to drop everything when my mom died suddenly to fly around the country dealing with it. When I return home Ill likely be jobless, homeless, and with a ton of funeral and related debt.  <response>: First, I am very sorry for your loss. This is usually the worst time to have to worry about financial problems but it seems I may add to your problems. Unfortunately, Life Insurance contracts are very difficult to contest the beneficiary because it ultimately is not the life insurance carrier decision who is the eligible beneficiary but the original contract. This is a very common problem as most do not update beneficiary when a life change happens. You can contest the beneficiary but you have several hurdles to cross. 1- Get a Lawyer now. It sounds like this will be financially difficult but you may be able to find representation pro bono or willing to collect there fee after a advantageous settlement.2- Its up to the court to decide who the beneficiary rightly should be. For example, it may have been part of divorce proceedings the your mother keep the Life Insurance contracts with her ex-spouse as the beneficiary. Although you may feel that your are the rightful beneficiary, there may have been extenuating circumstances. 3- Be Patient. This will not be resolved anytime soon. Years and not days or months before this is resolved. This will likely mean a very expensive battle and if the death benefit is a smaller value, you must make the decision if it is worth fighting.Good luck and keep your head up. 