Does Life Insurance Money Go Into Estate? 
Does life insurance money go into an estate ? Well , it can if that 's what the policy owner wants . Most life insurance policies have a stated beneficiary who would receive the proceeds outside of the estate and probate . One seldom thought of aspect of life insurance ownership is that for estate tax purposes the death benefit is valued as an asset for the policy owner . So it is possible for life insurance to be counted as part of an estate unless ownership is elsewhere , like an insurance trust for example . 