Ibrahim, an employee of a big national company, died in the course of the tsunami that severely damaged Aceh in late December 2004. Having worked as its employee for many years, Ibrahim was insured by his company. His sudden death in the tsunami disaster attracted some payments, including life insurance, pension fund and other related mourning funds. As his wife and all three of his children were also victims of the disaster, his only surviving relatives were his mother and his brother. They both managed to obtain an order from the Sharia Court of Jantho confirming that they were legitimate heirs. With this order at hand, they were able to convince various insurance providers (such as the Jaminan Sosial Tenaga Kerja, or Jamsostek) that they were the only beneficiaries, and thus received the insurance benefits in the name of the deceased, Ibrahim. However, relatives of Ibrahim's deceased wife contested, and claimed a share of the payment on the grounds that it constituted a joint marital property between Ibrahim and his wife during their lifetime.

The inheritance dispute being examined here is whether insurance benefits (in the case of the death of the insured person) are a part of the bequest. Do they constitute property of the deceased and are therefore disbursable among legitimate heirs? Or are they entitlements given consecutively to nominated beneficiaries whose names are listed in the insurance policy or as stipulated in Indonesian national laws on insurance? The dispute was very intricate, since there are ambiguous and conflicting concepts of the estate of the deceased. Given that there are various forms of insurance schemes, and each form has a different concept of property – as either joint marital property or the separate estates of husband and wife, respectively – disputes on this particular issue become even more complicated.

Legal problems in this particular case were twofold: (1) whether insurance benefits are considered as joint marital property or as the separate property of the deceased; and (2) whether or not insurance benefits are inheritance that can be divided among the legitimate heirs.