Who's entitled to the life insurance

I am so sorry for your loss. (You do seem to be handling it rather bravely, given that your mom died only a few days ago and you're already worrying about who gets her stuff.)  If your mother's roommate was the "benefactor" (I think you mean beneficiary) that means your mother had a will. Assuming it was properly executed, her estate goes to whomever she named in her will. Any life insurance policies go directly to the named beneficiaries, not to the heirs. The video means nothing. If there was no will, the life insurance policies still go to the named beneficiaries, but after an administrator of her estate is appointed, her estate gets divided in equal shares to her surviving children, if she had no spouse, and if there was a spouse, the spouse gets the first $50K of the estate plus one third and the children divide the remainder in equal shares.