Michelle is a lead editor at Forbes Advisor. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, writing about insurance for consumers for the last decade. Prior to covering insurance, Michelle was a lifestyle reporter at the New York Daily News, a magazine.
Michelle Megna Lead Editor, InsuranceMichelle is a lead editor at Forbes Advisor. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, writing about insurance for consumers for the last decade. Prior to covering insurance, Michelle was a lifestyle reporter at the New York Daily News, a magazine.
Written By Michelle Megna Lead Editor, InsuranceMichelle is a lead editor at Forbes Advisor. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, writing about insurance for consumers for the last decade. Prior to covering insurance, Michelle was a lifestyle reporter at the New York Daily News, a magazine.
Michelle Megna Lead Editor, InsuranceMichelle is a lead editor at Forbes Advisor. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, writing about insurance for consumers for the last decade. Prior to covering insurance, Michelle was a lifestyle reporter at the New York Daily News, a magazine.
Lead Editor, Insurance Ashlee Valentine Deputy Editor, InsuranceAshlee is an insurance editor, journalist and business professional with an MBA and more than 17 years of hands-on experience in both business and personal finance. She is passionate about empowering others to protect life's most important assets. Wh.
Ashlee Valentine Deputy Editor, InsuranceAshlee is an insurance editor, journalist and business professional with an MBA and more than 17 years of hands-on experience in both business and personal finance. She is passionate about empowering others to protect life's most important assets. Wh.
Ashlee Valentine Deputy Editor, InsuranceAshlee is an insurance editor, journalist and business professional with an MBA and more than 17 years of hands-on experience in both business and personal finance. She is passionate about empowering others to protect life's most important assets. Wh.
Ashlee Valentine Deputy Editor, InsuranceAshlee is an insurance editor, journalist and business professional with an MBA and more than 17 years of hands-on experience in both business and personal finance. She is passionate about empowering others to protect life's most important assets. Wh.
| Deputy Editor, Insurance
Updated: Nov 30, 2023, 12:14pm
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You may not know if a loved one who passed away had a life insurance policy or not. Or, you may know one exists but are uncertain of its whereabouts or what steps to take once you find it.
We’ll outline how to locate lost or unclaimed life insurance policies. It involves doing some simple detective work on your own, and there are online policy finder tools you can use, too.
An unclaimed life insurance policy comes about when the policyholder passes away, and the beneficiary doesn’t contact the insurer to receive the death benefit. It could be that the beneficiary is unaware of the policy, forgot about it, has incomplete information or cannot locate the policy.
Once you’re aware that a life insurance policy does exist, there are actions to take to try and track the unclaimed life insurance policy down.
Begin close to home and search personal records. These include files, safe deposit boxes and address books. If you find the names of insurance agents, brokers and financial advisers, you can call to see if they kept their own records. Bank and credit card statements might also show premium payments to a life insurance company.
And don’t ignore the departed’s IRS tax returns. A tax form and supplemental filings could show interest income from a permanent life insurance policy with cash value. Income tax returns may also show the interest paid on any loans if the deceased borrowed against their life insurance policy.
If possible, check the deceased person’s mail and email. The life insurance company may have sent a notice on the status of the policy, on dividends or on cash value amounts, if, for instance, they had a universal life insurance policy.
If you are able to find out which homeowners insurance company and car insurance company your loved one used, reach out to the claims or customer service staff. People sometimes bundle life insurance with their auto or home insurance company.
Now expand the search by reviewing employers and other professional affiliations. Where had the policyholder worked and did an employer provide term life insurance or a whole life insurance option that the decedent chose? Was the relative or friend who died a member of a fraternal or professional association or union that gave them a policy?
Another option is to go to life insurance company websites and see if they have online search tools you can use. Some major life insurance companies have policy locators to help potential beneficiaries determine if they’re able to collect.
Companies with policy locators include:
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During your search, you might find that the life insurance company contacts you. Insurers often use the Social Security Administration’s “Death Master” file, which keeps records of all its recipients who died. Insurers compare their records to it.
The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act requires most life insurance companies to check this database at least twice a year to find unclaimed life insurance policies. If a match is found, they must try to find the beneficiary within 90 days. The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act has been enacted in over 30 states but still doesn’t apply to every state. Also, only deaths reported to the Social Security Association are included.
The New York Department of Financial Services has a “lost policy finder.” It lets the executor or administrator of an estate, or even a member of the deceased’s immediate family or closest relative, create a search request, provided they submit basic information and a copy of the death certificate.
Other states that have online policy finders include:
Your own state comptroller’s Unclaimed Property Office could be helpful. If an insurer knows the policyholder died but couldn’t find the beneficiary, it must turn the death benefit over to the state. To find your state’s comptroller, use the free tool put out by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
While there is no national database for all life insurance policies, you can try using the NAIC’s Life Insurance Policy Locator Service. It’s a free tool, though you must have basic information about the person who passed and be a possible beneficiary to search records of participating life insurance companies.
Several search services are available online but usually charge for their services.
There is also a national database for all individual life insurance policy applications made to U.S. and Canadian insurers. If the deceased applied for a policy after 1996, MIB Group will probably have a record of the insurance company to which they applied. It costs $75 to get a report.
Finding a life insurance policy is no guarantee of collecting the death benefit—you have to be named as a beneficiary. And, you could be one of several beneficiaries, which means you would not get the entire payout.
If you are named as a beneficiary, filing a life insurance claim can be relatively straightforward if:
To file a life insurance claim, you typically need:
A search for someone else’s life insurance policy is a reminder to put your own affairs in order. Be sure to tell your life insurance beneficiaries and your family members where to find your life insurance policy and related documents. If you have it in a safe deposit box, make sure they have access.
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