When people have life insurance, they often do not know who to make it payable to. Usually they name a spouse, which is fine. After the spouse, they name their minor children. I am not a big fan of naming minor children, for a few reasons.
First, the life insurance company is not going to write a check to a minor. Second, at age 18 I certainly do not want my kids to have full access to the life insurance money. I have a million-dollar policy, and I do not want $500,000 going to one child and $500,000 to the other. That would open a lot of doors and cause them a lot of problems. They may be subject to the influence of others, and they may not handle the money well.
Payable to the trust instead
I would much rather have the money guarded and protected for them. That is why my own life insurance is payable to my living trust, the Mansour Family Trust. I want the money sitting there, growing for the kids and distributed to them at appropriate times for appropriate reasons. I do not want it going directly to the children, where they might squander it or someone might take advantage of them.
If you have a living trust, or are thinking about creating one, I strongly recommend you consider making your life insurance payable to it. It may be the appropriate thing to do.