Sounds like you dodged a bullet.

While OP makes this situation seem shady (and it very well may be) by the time 2 people are ready to get married EVERYTHING should be disclosed. Debts and financial status, stalker ex's, overbearing parents, etc. By getting married you are mixing your life with another's both physically and financially (and spirituality if you want to go that way) so each other's boons and troubles affects the other. Once you are married he would know what it's worth anyway as he should become the one who it pays out to so asking now while your engaged isn't out of line and if your willing to hide that how does he know you don't also have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans? If your not ready to put everything on the table for him to see (and he needs to do the same) then your not ready to get married.

Why would a single person have life insurance? Both of you seem a bit sketchy.

Does HE have life insurance? How much is it worth? Fairplay is a two-way street. If he isn't responsible enough to have his own policy, yours is none of his business. Once you are married, he may not "automatically" become the beneficiary, depending on where you live. I would ask him how much he thinks I need and go from there.

sounds like he was gonna murder you, or at least was wondering how sad he should be if you die.

so you want him take on your debt but you want to hide your life insurance policy? what if it was reversed? and after 15 years together and a couple children he dies and you find out his life insurance only pays out 10k or that you are not the beneficiary...you will have a fit right?

I think that situation could be taken either of two ways: (1) It sounds weird that fiancé should make such a big stink about the life insurance value, hopefully they were not planning on collecting it! If fiancé was tempted by such a thought then OP did quite literally “dodge a bullet”. At the best fiancé may have been looking for an excuse to call it off. (2) By the time wedding plans are finalized and the parties are considering merging finances, or whatever, the couple need to understand what their financial situations are and how they plan to handle finances. Some merge the finances, some split the expenses according to their incomes and other expenses. In this context a life insurance policy which might have a present value (some life insurance policies are a combination of investment and life insurance and these do have a present value like a savings account). While I don’t necessarily believe that is usually a big consideration for pre-marital finances, fiancé might have some interest in knowing this - Though frankly even in this context I think his attitude was suspect, at best. OP - Financial status and a plan for either shared expenses or split expenses are an important but delicate topic to bring up. But it’s a really important item to get resolved. Different couples approach it differently. There is no one way to do it. But it does need to be addressed to at least some degree before sharing a household.

I'm curious. Why wouldn't you tell him?

A friend of the family had her dad kill her mom for the insurance money. Then he insured her. She skipped town. Never trust a dude when they start questioning how much you're worth if dead.

I agree, that is a huge red flag. Please, do *not* get back together with him.