If a specific disposition is damaged or destroyed before the decedent's death and the insurance company pays the executor after the decedent's death, who is entitled to the money?

• A. The beneficiary named in the disposition.
• B. The decedent's executor.
• C. The testator's heirs at law.
• D. The state for escheat.

Answer: (A)

The issue tests how a specific bequest is treated when its designated asset is destroyed before death and how life-insurance proceeds payable to the estate fit into that picture.

When a thing bequeathed specifically is destroyed, the bequest ordinarily would be adeemed, meaning the named beneficiary would not receive that exact asset. But the situation here involves the insurance proceeds that are paid to the executor after the decedent’s death. Those proceeds are available to satisfy the decedent’s will as part of the estate, and the testator’s intent is clear: the beneficiary named in the disposition should receive the benefit intended by that specific bequest, even though the original asset is gone. Because the money ultimately serves to fulfill the same gift the will was directing, the beneficiary named in the disposition is the one entitled to the proceeds.

In other words, the intention to give the value of that specific item to the named beneficiary survives the destruction of the asset, and the estate’s insurance proceeds are used to satisfy that intent. The other possibilities—the executor, the decedent’s heirs at law, or escheat to the state—do not fit because there is a valid will with a named beneficiary for that specific bequest, so the beneficiary receives the value of the intended gift.