Life Insurance as part of property?

what you need to understand on life insurance policies and divorce, is that it isn't about the amount it would be worth upon death, it has to do with the "surrender value" meaning - what the insurance company values it at now - and many of them put a very minor value when surrenduring it over, and it is NOT worth what was put into it.

If it is part of an employer benefit package, it has zero surrender value, and would be worth nothing in the divorce.

If it has a surrender value, but was bought with marital assets, it doesn't matter who the beneficiary is on it, you may still be entited to a portion of it's surrender value - but nine times out of ten, it's such a small amount, it isn't even worth going after.

You can have your lawyer request discovery on the life insurance info - and decide from there what you want to do - I tend to advise people to leave life insurance policies alone when there are children involved, as they deserve the benefit of the policy upon death of the parent, if it becomes a case where the spouse can't afford to pay off the divorcing spouse the "surrender amount" if there is any...forcing the policy to actually be surrendered.