Report No. 82
5.10. Death of beneficiary.-
For that reason, about the beginning of this century, companies began providing in their policies that if the beneficiary died before the insured, the death benefit would be payable to the estate of the insured. This eliminated the possibility that the death benefit could become payable to the estate of someone who had died years before, and it is the general practice today.1
1. Greider & Beadles Law and the Life Insurance Contract, (1968), pp. 144-145.