Does life insurance go to pay the estate debt before the beneficiary gets paid?

In order to answer this question you may want to speak with a licensed life insurance agent, a financial planner, or an estate tax professional.

I believe the death benefit from a life insurance policy goes directly to the beneficiary of the policy without any federal taxes taken from the proceeds.

Also, a life insurance policy is separate from an estate, and the person named as beneficiary is not responsible to pay the insured person's estate taxes or debt from his/her money received from a life insurance policy when named as beneficiary. I believe the money is separate.

However, if the beneficiary is named in the estate of the deceased person, the beneficiary may have to pay taxes on the money received from the estate. I think this is called estate taxes.

I believe the handling of the estate is completely separate from the handling of the life insurance proceeds.