r/personalfinance • u/daniellita2011 • Jan 31 '24
Husband died yesterday
My (38F) husband (37M) died yesterday morning and we are making all the arrangements for him. My question is about his benefits and life insurance which is tied to his job.
How do I go about letting his employer know that he passed? Once they know will they take away the life insurance policy? I had just called them the day before to request leave of absence for him so now I have to call them back.
This is all new to me so I have no idea how to handle my new financial life. He was the main breadwinner so I will need the money for me and my daughter.
For context we live in Florida but his employer is a large healthcare company.
Also any advice you all have for me? I want to make sure I do this right because I don’t want to struggle in top of dealing with the grief and pain this is causing me.
2
u/moistmarbles Jan 31 '24
Sorry to hear this. Call his employers HR dept. If it’s a company of any size, they will have a playbook for this situation. The value of employer sponsored life insurance is often 1x the employees salary. Employees have the option to purchase more during open enrollment, but many do not because the extra costs money. They can tell you what benefit he was enrolled in, but don’t expect that employer sponsored life insurance will set you and your daughter up financially for life.