Insurer Acceptance Required for Life Insurance Beneficiary Change by Will

A plaintiff, having taken out a life insurance policy naming a specific individual as the beneficiary, subsequently modified the designation of the beneficiary by a will, but this modification was not formally accepted by the insurer before the insured's death, leading to a dispute over who was entitled to the proceeds. The court held that the designation of the beneficiary in a life insurance contract is a contractual stipulation that can only be modified with the express acceptance of the insurer, and thus, the initial designation in the policy, not the subsequent, unaccepted will, governed the distribution of the capital upon the insured's death, leading to the cassation of the lower court's decision.