how to find life insurance policies of deceased parent

Locating the life insurance policy of a deceased parent can exist a daunting task. Whether they were organized or disorganized, if they didn't tell you where it was earlier they passed away, you could be in for quite a search.

Jump alee to these sections:

• What Documents or Information Will Yous Need to Search For a Deceased Parent's Life Insurance Policy?
• Steps For Finding the Life Insurance Policy of a Deceased Parent
• Organizing and Storing Your Life Insurance Records
• Where Should You lot Continue the Data?

Yous're going to face up a real challenge if they placed it somewhere you'd never suspect. Information technology can take precious fourth dimension to find a missing policy, and fourth dimension can be of the essence, especially if yous're responsible for funeral costs.

In this article, nosotros'll await at exactly how you tin can carry a comprehensive search, and we'll give you lot some practical communication on how to find the life insurance policy of a deceased parent.

What Documents or Information Will You Need to Search For a Deceased Parent's Life Insurance Policy?

If luck is on your side, you might have a good idea who the insurer is for your parent's life insurance policy. If that's the case, in that location are a few pieces of data that will help y'all with your search:

• The proper noun of the life insurance visitor that issued the policy
• The policy number (which you tin can become from whatsoever correspondence from the insurer, including almanac statements)
• Names of the policy'southward beneficiary or beneficiaries
• The face amount (death benefit) of the policy

If y'all believe the policy is in a safe deposit box, you'll need to become a courtroom gild stating that your parent is in fact deceased. Without information technology, the financial institution can't let you view the box's contents.

Steps For Finding the Life Insurance Policy of a Deceased Parent

Information technology's easier to find something if you become about information technology systematically. If y'all've searched high and low through your parent's dwelling and come empty, here are some steps you tin can take to locate the missing life insurance policy.

• Await for insurance-related documents. Conduct a thorough search through storage areas, filing cabinets, banking concern condom deposit boxes, address books, and correspondence from the deceased'south insurance agent.

• Contact fiscal advisors. Investment advisors, accountants, attorneys, insurance agents, and other financial service professionals might be able to give you information nigh the life insurance policy.

• Review life insurance applications from other policies they endemic. Many people own more than one life insurance policy. Fastened to each policy you should find the awarding, which should include the names of any other life insurance policies your arent endemic. This can provide y'all with valuable clues most the different life insurance companies that y'all can contact to encounter if your parent had a life insurance policy with them.

• Contact previous employers. It's possible that your parent's employer provided group life insurance. All employers are required to maintain records concerning their past group policies and employees who participated in the program. Fifty-fifty if their records aren't very detailed, you'll yet become the insurance company'south name, and yous can take information technology from there.

• Bank check bank statements. Were in that location whatever checks written to life insurance companies? How near automated deductions made by an insurer every month for premium payments? There's a skilful possibility that your loved i kept bank records, and you can find out from those records who your parent was doing concern with when it came to insurance.

• Check the mail. For the commencement yr following your parent's decease, wait for any correspondence from the insurance company, like dividend or premium notices.

• Review income tax returns. Look over your parent'due south tax returns from the by couple of years. They may accept received interest income from a permanent life insurance policy or deducted interest charges they paid on policy loans.
• Contact country insurance departments. Twenty-9 states offer free search services to people looking for lost insurance policies. The National Clan of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) utilizes a program called the Life Insurance Company Location System (LICLS) to help people find the names of state insurance department officials who can perchance help identify life insurance companies that may have issued a policy on a parent.

• Check with the state's Unclaimed Property Office. Life insurance companies periodically friction match death records with policyholder records to see if any of their policyholders have passed away and had beneficiaries that never contacted the insurer.

If the insurer can't locate the beneficiaries, they turn the death benefit over to the state as "unclaimed property." If you know the country where the policy was purchased, contact that state's comptroller department and bank check if the state has any unclaimed money from policies belonging to your parent. The National Clan of Unclaimed Holding Administrators is a great identify to start.

• Contact a private search firm. At that place are several individual companies that will, for a fee, help you with your search for a missing life insurance policy. They volition painstakingly contact dozens of insurance companies on your behalf to come across if your parent was insured at that place.

• Search the MIB database. There isn't a fundamental database of insurance policy-related documents, but there is a database of applications processed by insurers since Jan 1, 1966. You have to pay a fee for a search, and at least 25% of searches don't plow up anything. To learn more, go to the MIB's Consumer Protection Page .
• Wait for a call. If none of the other steps assist you locate the missing policy, you may need to await patiently to be contacted by the life insurance company (if you're the casher) when they do 1 of their periodic searches for beneficiaries.

Organizing and Storing Your Life Insurance Records

If y'all've been searching for a deceased parent'south life insurance policy, you know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be. The last affair yous probably want to happen is for your beneficiaries to go through the aforementioned matter and not be able to submit a claim on your life insurance.

To prevent this from happening, keep copies of your life insurance records in two separate locations. This reduces the gamble that they'll exist lost or damaged from a flood, burn down, etc.

For each individual life insurance policy you ain, be sure you can answer the following questions (and go along a record of your answers):

• What is the proper name of the visitor that issued the life insurance policy?
• Where is their home function located?
• Are they a subsidiary of a non-U.S. company?
• What is the policy number?
• What is the engagement that the policy was issued?
• What is the death do good corporeality?
• What is the contact information (name, accost, phone number) of the agent who sold the policy?
• Is it a term life policy or a permanent policy (whole life, universal life, etc.)?
• Where is the original life insurance policy kept?

If you accept life insurance as an employee benefit where you piece of work, you should be able to respond the post-obit questions:

• Who sponsors the plan (name of employer or group)?
• Who should I contact if I need to file a claim?
• What is my certificate number (similar to a policy number on a not-group or individual life insurance program)?
• What engagement did my coverage outset?
• What is the death do good amount?

There are as well other types of financial products (inability insurance, workers comp, annuities, pensions, etc.) that have death benefits equally function of the policy. Go along all documentation pertaining to any of these programs in a secure location, and know this data about the base of operations product and the life insurance benefit):

• What is the blazon of base policy that includes the death benefit?
• When was the policy issued?
• Which life insurance company issued the policy?
• Where are they located?
• What is the policy number?
• What is the dollar corporeality of the death benefit?
• Who sold me this policy?
• What is their address and phone number?
• Where is the original policy kept, and does someone I trust know that location?

Where Should You Keep the Information?

Now that yous've assembled this information, where can you go along information technology when someone needs to notice information technology? You'll demand to tell someone where the policy is.

For safety, continue the original document at your dwelling and a copy off-site in a location similar a rubber deposit box, or with a financial or legal counselor (CFP, CPA, attorney) who will produce the document if needed. You want to know there's a re-create bachelor to your survivors in case the original is ever damaged by burn, inundation, etc.

For an extra measure out of circumspection, write the date of the last time the information was updated. This will be of import then that, if the data on the original policy and the copy doesn't match up it volition be easy to make up one's mind which policy is current.

Organization Is the Key

Following the steps listed higher up should help you locate a missing insurance policy after a parent dies. If your parent is still alive, it's a good idea to get together with them and assist them get organized. That fashion, yous tin prevent the policy from going missing, and y'all can make sure you won't take to hunt for those documents when they pass away.

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Source: https://www.joincake.com/blog/how-to-find-life-insurance-policies-of-deceased-parent/

Posted by: parrishthicamewyn1960.blogspot.com

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