and the appellant. The
veteran had asked her to witness the document. He was alert
and clear, with no indication that he was under the influence
of alcohol or medication. The veteran had told her that he
was wrong and wanted to change his insurance.
II. Legal Analysis
A National Service Life Insurance policy is a contract
between the veteran and the Federal Government which assigns
legally binding duties and responsibilities to each party.
Wolfe v. Gober, 11 Vet. App. 1, 2 (1997). As the insurer,
the United States promises to pay the proceeds of the NSLI
policy to whomever the veteran designates as the beneficiary
or beneficiaries of the policy proceeds.
The veteran, as the insured party, possesses the right to
designate the beneficiary or beneficiaries of the policy, and
at all times enjoys the right to change the beneficiary or
beneficiaries withoutunambiguously states that an effective
change of beneficiary must be in writing and "signed by the
insured." It is clear that if the veteran did, in fact,
sign the April 1996 beneficiary designation form, he would
have successfully changed the beneficiary on his NSLI policy.
The existence of the signed letter would be evidence of an
intention to change the beneficiary, and the signing and
mailing of the letter would constitute overt acts taken to
effectuate this intent. However, in this case, there is a
dispute as to whether the veteran actually signed the April
1996 form which designated the appellant as the beneficiary
of the NSLI proceeds, and the determinative issue before the
Board is whether the veteran's signature on the 1996 form is
authentic.
Regarding the signature of the veteran on the beneficiary
designation purportedly signed in April 1996, handwriting
analyses conducted