How do you find out if someone had life insurance after they have died? And if they did have it, who are the beneficiaries? It’s tough to figure out on your own since most life insurance companies won’t take any action to notify beneficiaries until someone reports the insured’s death. So where do you start?
The first thing you need to do is search for policies:
- Look through past bank statements to find out if a payment has been made. Payments are typically made once per year, once per quarter, or once per month. You should try to look through at least 1 year of statements or checkbooks..
- Check the mail about 1 year after your loved one’s death to look for clues that a life insurance policy exists. You may find billing statements, policy notices, or even stock statements. Some insurance companies issue stock to policy holders.
- Check tax returns: some policies will provide an annual payment to the insured. The payment is considered income and a 1099 will be issued to the policy owner in February or March the following Spring after the payment.
- Contact the decedent’s previous employers, especially if the employer was the County, State or Federal government, local school system, college or university. Many major employers extend life insurance policies to retirees.
- And of course poke through files, papers, safes, and bank boxes for clues that an insurance policy exists.
Lucky you if you find a policy, here’s what you do next:
Contact the insurance company, then advise the representative that your loved one has died, and ask the representative to search for a policy. You should have the death certificate handy so that you can provide the decedent’s social security number and date of death.
Many people do have insurance policies even for very small amounts, and it is worth the time and effort to find those large and small policies. After all, the benefits were either earned or paid for and your loved one would want those policies to be paid to the beneficiaries.