You can find a lost life insurance policy by using search tools, such as the NAIC's life insurance policy locator, and checking with the deceased's estate planning attorney.
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Nupur Gambhir
Nupur Gambhir is a content editor and licensed life, health, and disability insurance expert. She has extensive experience bringing brands to life and has built award-nominated campaigns for travel and tech. Her insurance expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Financial Gym, and the end-of-life planning service.
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Life insurance policies often go unclaimed because beneficiaries don’t notify the insurance company when the policyholder dies. Most insurance companies don’t even know the insured has died and they are also not required to inform beneficiaries who are listed on a policy.
If you’re not sure if you’re listed as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy, there are a few ways to find out. For starters, the NAIC has a database that searches for life insurance policies and annuity contracts and is just one of many databases that can help you find a lost policy. If that doesn’t work, you’ll want to check with the deceased’s estate planning attorney or financial advisor, as they should know about any life insurance policies they had.
Beneficiaries can also check bank accounts that show premium payments, mail for policy information and statements, tax returns or consult with the deceased’s last employer.
You can find more details about how to find a life insurance policy below.
Key Takeaways
If you don’t know if you’re the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, there are a few useful tools out there you can use to search for a policy:
If none of the search tools above yield any results, you can still find out if you are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, though it will take a bit of extra work. The ACLI has a number of tips for those who think they might be beneficiaries of a life insurance policy:
If you believe you may have a life insurance claim but proving it is difficult, the ACLI suggests that you try the Policy Locator Service from MIB Solutions. This service matches the deceased’s name against roughly 170 million records. If the policyholder applied for the policy in 1996 or after, you might find it here. Executors and administrators are entitled to order a report, but in cases where neither is available, a surviving spouse or closest relative has the right. Reports cost $75 and MIB says searches receive a 30 percent response rate.
However, one of the best resources may be other relatives. Life insurance is part of most inheritances, and where there’s a will, there’s a relative. After someone dies, everyone has an interest in seeing their affairs settled, particularly when there are funeral expenses to be paid.
Talking about death is uncomfortable, which is why many beneficiaries might not even know they are listed on a policy. But when that happens, the beneficiaries never receive a life insurance death benefit that likely cost hundreds, if not thousands, to secure. That’s why it’s so important for policyholders to discuss life insurance policy information and all estate planning matters before they die.
MIB Solutions, which tries to locate policies for beneficiaries through its database of life insurance application data, says that “it is possible, if not likely, that millions of dollars in life insurance goes unclaimed.”
That number has now reached billions.
Thankfully, individual states are creating legislation requiring life insurance companies to make a concerted effort to notify the beneficiaries of policies. To date, 20 states have passed legislation, with more following suit.
“We are obligated to honor the terms of life insurance contracts, and anyone with questions about a policy should contact the company that issued it,” says Whit Cornman of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), an industry trade group.
To get life insurance benefits, you need to know the name of the insurance company that issued the policy and the policy number.
There is usually no time limit to filing a life insurance death claim, but after about three years (depending on the state), the benefit money may be turned over to the state. If you file a claim after three years, you will need to go to your state’s insurance department to file the claim.
No. Life insurance companies do not contact beneficiaries. If you own a life insurance policy, it is important to discuss any existing life insurance policies with your beneficiaries so that they know about the policy and can access the death benefit.
First and foremost, all conversations about existing life insurance policies should happen while the parent is alive. But, if you cannot find a life insurance policy of a deceased parent, you should consult their financial advisors about their estate plans. If you still can’t find a policy, use life insurance search tools such as the NAIC’s policy locator.
