What happens to life insurance benefits if beneficiary refuses payments?

Most life insurance policies have a primary and secondary beneficiary. If the primary signs away all their present and future rights to the benefits then it will be left to the secondary beneficiary. If there is no secondary beneficiary or the secondary beneficiary is deceased the money would be left to the estate of the insured and subject to probate. This would place the funds subject to estate taxes if the estate is large enough. As a matter of full disclosure, I own and operate a small Independent Insurance Agency for the past 22 years and worked as an agent for direct writers for 3 years prior to that.