Life insurance is usually purchased to protect against the loss of income in the event of the death of a policy holder. It is a good security for your family in case of death.
You will find questions being raised by beneficiaries after they bury their deceased.
Questions like: how can you find out if you are the beneficiary on a policy? Or how do you find out if someone had a life insurance policy before they died?
A beneficiary is any person named in a policy as the one to be paid the benefits.
In these cases an insured policyholder fails to inform the beneficiary or beneficiaries of the existence of a policy in case of their demise.
So how can you find out if you are a beneficiary on a life insurance policy or if the deceased had a valid life insurance policy.
It is not an easy task to find out if someone had a life insurance policy before they died.
The relationship between the policyholder and the insurance company is one of confidentiality when the policyholder is alive.
There exists over $1billion of unclaimed life insurance death benefits as a result of the lack of awareness by the beneficiaries and other interested parties.
The onus of claiming these benefits falls on the beneficiary and in this case the beneficiary is unaware of the existence of the death benefits therefore the failure to claim the proceeds.
If these benefits remain unclaimed after a certain stipulated period which vary from state to state the insurance company is required by law to forward the unclaimed life insurance to the state governments.
These are the steps you can take in your quest to answer the questions above and trace any death benefits:
To find out this information you will need to get into the deceased records of credit cards and bank statements or payslips to check any premium payments to an insurance company.
This would include any safety deposit box and any other important documents.
Check with their lawyers, accountants or employer for any information.
Ask relatives, friends and colleagues for any information they might have.
Check with the State Office for Unclaimed Property for any records of insurance payments forwarded by insurance companies.
Conduct a free online search through the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators website at MissingMoney.com.
Employ the services of a private investigator to get you the information.
If you identify an insurance company, write to them to check if the deceased had a valid insurance with them.
To apply for any information you’ll require to provide a death certificate and a notarized application.
With due diligence it is possible for beneficiaries to life insurance policies to locate unclaimed life insurance benefits in most states in the US.
