Deceased employees and payment of wages due

jweakley · June 2005

One of our Oklahoma employees recently committed suicide. He did not have a will, and he has no spouse or children. There is not a beneficiary designation for wages, but he designated his father as beneficiary of his group life insurance. Oklahoma has a wage statute regarding payment of wages to spouses or children, but I could not find a wage-payment hierarchy. The deceased employee's father wants us to pay the wages due to him. My thought is to do so providing that he signs an indemnification and hold harmless agreement. Any other thoughts?

HR in CA · June 2005

We have been advised to issue final pay for deseased employees to the estate of John Doe. I have had to do this a few times and have never had any issues. Our lawyer advised us to this even if there is a beneficiary named for life insurance, etc.

HRLASS · June 2005

Ditto. We were advised that by making the payment to the estate, the final resting place of the dollars is up to the probate court.

marc · June 2005

Exactly, probate will occur and if you do not run the dollars through probate, you are potentially liable for the money probate would have otherwise administered.

Deceased employees and payment of wages due

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