Quora Answer: Where Does Life Insurance Pay Out to if There is No Beneficiary?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Where does life insurance go if there is no beneficiary?”

Should there be no nominated beneficiary for a life policy, the policy pays out to the estate of the deceased, and distributed according to the will.  It comes under the administration of the executor of the estate.  If there is no will, and the deceased passed away intestate, the payout will still be consolidated with the rest of the estate, and distributed according to intestacy laws.  If there was a beneficiary, and the beneficiary predeceased the deceased, meaning that the beneficiary passed away before the life insured, the policy pays out to the estate as if there was no beneficiary.