How to Find a Lost Insurance Policy
What with moving, getting old and better at forgetting things, it’s easy to lose a few things. A life insurance policy may be one of them. And if death occurs, relatives, aware that they are beneficiaries, may have to search a bit to find the policy. If you do not know the insurer, what approaches can you use?
• Speak with anyone aware of the deceased’s affairs and finances. Include his lawyer, banker, accountant, and insurance agent. Of course, if he had all these, you would probably have policy.
• You might try his past employers in case he had some group life insurance or supplemental life insurance through work.
• Check all cancelled checks of his made out to an insurance company. Contact his bank for copies of old checks.
• Check as much of his past mail as you can find. You are looking for insurance premium bills and policy-status notices. These are sent out by insurance companies annually, and when payments are due.
• Examine his tax returns. Here, you are looking for interest income (Schedule B) from policies or expenses paid to life insurance companies.
• Contact the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) in case the deceased had recently tried to buy life insurance. It maintains a database about requests on medical information within the past seven years. Do a search on the MIB Policy Locator Service.
The Reverse Situation: Insurance Company Cannot Find Beneficiary
If a company knows an insured died and it cannot find the beneficiary, it must turn the full death benefit over to the state (where the policy was bought) comptroller’s department within three to five years of the insured’s death.
The money is considered "unclaimed property" and gets lumped in with dormant bank accounts and uncollected rent deposits. The comptroller’s department maintains a database that lists the names and addresses of lost beneficiaries.
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