by mmbyes » Mon Mar 18, 2013 04:06 am
My father has passed and I can not find out where or if he had a life Insurance policy. He told me and my mother he had one years ago but we were not close and not it is a mess.
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 04:26 am Post Subject:
Search through all his past financial details, i.e., all transactions made in previous years. Contact the bank he had account with. Ask for the details of all the drafts or checks he issued in the last three years. You might find some clue by doing this.
Even if you are a beneficiary, the insurance company will NOT notify you in a few weeks. Major life insurance providers are using the Master Death File to identify deceased life insurance policyholders and contacting beneficiaries these days and the whole procedure may take years to complete. So don’t wait for the insurance company to contact you. Else, take some initiative on your own. You could even ask the agent or your mother (if she is alive).
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 09:44 pm Post Subject:
Even if you are a beneficiary, the insurance company will NOT notify you in a few weeks. Major life insurance providers are using the Master Death File to identify deceased life insurance policyholders and contacting beneficiaries these days and the whole procedure may take years to complete.
This is not exactly true. Several states have won multimillion dollar victories with a number of larger insurance companies over this exact thing. When a death is reported to Social Security it is released to the Master Death Index within 60 days. Insurance companies will get the information within 60 days of that.What they were doing with the information was terminating annuity payments, but not taking action with regard to life insurance. Now these insurance companies (and all other companies are essentially on notice to do the same) must make good faith efforts to locate the beneficiaries of life insurance policies who have not made claims by the time the insurance company discovers a policyowner is dead.
That's the part that could be complicated. Still, unless a person is trying exceptionally hard not to be found, the insurance company should find a beneficiary relatively quickly -- not years down the road.
The other recommendation to review banking records is one valuable source, and another resource is the Medical Information Bureau's MIB Solutions Lost Policy Locator Service. http://www.mib.com/lost_life_insurance.html
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