When a life insurance company is notified of a contest to a beneficiary designation, it is very rarely going to simply ignore the contest and pay the designated beneficiary. Instead, it will begin the interpleader process to have a court decide the rightful policy beneficiary. But before the life insurance company files an interpleader lawsuit, it will typically send the competing policy claimants outlining the dispute and providing a period of time for a potential resolution. Thus is what I call the pre-interpleader letter. It gives the competing parties an opportunity to hire lawyers to assist in evaluation of the dispute.