If I renounce the inheritance, can I receive the life insurance payout?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Yes, if you are the designated beneficiary. The sum insured is not part of the estate and the insurer must pay it to you even if the heirs or the deceased's creditors object. The law says so expressly even when the policy names “the heirs” as beneficiaries, who keep that status even if they renounce. That is why it is common to renounce an inheritance with debts and receive the insurance payout. The exception is where no beneficiary has been designated, because the sum insured is then part of the estate. Why The beneficiary acquires the sum insured through a right of their own that arises from the contract, not as an heir. The deceased's creditors cannot take the sum insured. They can only require the beneficiary to return to them the premiums that the deceased paid in fraud of their rights, for example if the deceased, knowing that they could not pay their debts, put their money into the policy. If the policy says that the beneficiaries are “the heirs”, the beneficiaries are those who have that status when the insured dies, even if they later renounce the inheritance. Before renouncing Ask the insurer whether you are named as beneficiary. If none has been designated and the policy contains no rules for working out who it is, the sum insured goes into the estate and anyone who renounces does not receive it. Do not do anything that amounts to accepting the inheritance, such as collecting other assets of the deceased or paying their debts with money from the estate. Receiving the insurance payout as beneficiary does not amount to accepting the inheritance. In Catalonia, heirs who are minors always inherit with the benefit of inventory, without having to meet the debts from their own assets. Any heir can achieve the same by making an inventory within six months of learning that they are an heir. Sometimes that is better than renouncing. Tax Renouncing the inheritance does not exempt you from the “impuesto de sucesiones”, the Spanish inheritance tax, on what you receive from the insurance, which is taxed separately. In Catalonia it is declared on form 652, within six months of the death. If you are the deceased's spouse, descendant or ascendant, you are entitled to a 100 % allowance on up to 25.000 euros, in addition to the kinship allowance. If you were their stable partner (in a “pareja estable”, the Catalan stable partnership), ask whether you are entitled to the same allowance.