보험계약자의 보험수익자 지정･변경에 관한 연구

The current commercial law does not have specific contents related to the effect of manifestation of intention to designate and change the insurance beneficiary and only have the obligation of the policyholder to notify as a countermeasure against the insurer. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the right of insurance contractors to change the beneficiary is the Gestaltungsrecht(right to change the legal relationship) and that it is effective by unilateral manifestation of intention that does not need to reach the other party. However, in this case, it can hurt the legal stability and the safety of the transaction and unfair damage to the former beneficiary or the insurer. Recently, the National Assembly proposed an amendment to the Commercial Act that would allow the policyholder to make an effect when the notice of the policyholder reaches the insurer if the policyholder designates or changes the beneficiary of the insurance(Article 734). The amendment was initiated to reduce the possibility of legal disputes in relation to the existence of policyholder’s manifestation of intention and the time of the effective occurrence, and to improve the stability of the legal relationship by clarifying the time of the effectiveness of designation and change of the policyholder. However, if the effect is recognized at the time of the arrival of manifestation of intention, there is still a lot of legal dispute. In addition, disputes may arise between interested parties such as the policyholder, heirs and the insurer about the reach of the manifestation of intention. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare more sophisticated legislation such as limiting the method of manifestation of intention in writing and retroactively applying the timing of the effect of the expression of intention to the time of notification. In addition, it is necessary to discuss and review in depth whether to allow the designation and change of insurance beneficiary by will.