There are ways for people to find a deceased person’s coverage even when no record was left.
Beneficiaries of life insurance policies have struggled with the ability to collect the payout from the coverage when their deceased loved one has failed to leave any record of the insurer or any other identifying information.
Though recent crackdowns have encouraged insurers to make a larger effort, beneficiaries can do their part.
There is no central database that a beneficiary can call in order to find out what life insurance company sold the policy. Therefore, many people struggle to be able to locate the policy and often find themselves forced to give up.
Certain strategies have been recommended by the life insurance industry to ease this process.
There are steps that can be taken by a life insurance beneficiary to assist in the process of discovering where the policy was sold so that a payout can be made. Though insurers are now required to check official death records and take additional actions in order to discover when a policyholder has passed away, and to attempt to locate the beneficiaries, when the loved ones are also in on the search, this can greatly simplify the process.
The first step is the most obvious one: to search through records – particularly paper records – that can help to reveal where a life insurance policy was purchased. Though an actual policy is the ideal document, there are other places that this information can be found.
For example, cancelled checks or bank records can reveal where premiums payments were being sent. Tax returns can also show evidence of dividends or taxable withdrawals. An address book can help to indicate the number for an agent, accountant, financial planner, or other adviser who may have assisted in the purchase.
Identify all of the other insurers with which the deceased individual had policies, such as homeowners or auto. Call those companies to see if there is a life insurance policy with them, as well. Finally, make sure to watch the mail in case premiums notices arrive. That is certainly a clear indicator. This will make the process much faster and easier.