Life insurance proceeds pass outside of probate; generally they are not considered assets of the decedent’s estate.
As such, and depending on all of the language contained in the Last Will & Testament, the insurance proceeds can be retained by the person named as the beneficiary of the policy without the legal requirement of being divided among a Will’s beneficiaries.
But there is one concern to review.
Caution must be exercised in cases such as this to ensure that the Last Will & Testament does not contain language that would “equalize” the division of the decedent’s property among beneficiaries by taking into account any non-probate assets being transferred to beneficiaries outside the estate and reducing estate bequests to those beneficiaries that do receiver non-estate property.
That is not to suggest that such language is contained in all Wills, only that the Will must be read carefully to determine the proper division of all estate assets.