12 steps to finding a lost life insurance policy.

Finding life insurance documents for a deceased relative can be difficult—for one thing,
there are currently no national databases of all life insurance policies. You can, however, successfully navigate the paper trail with a bit of detective work.

Here are some tips to help you narrow down your search.

1. Look for insurance-related paperwork.

Look through files, bank safe deposit boxes, and other storage locations for insurance-related documents. Also, look through address books for the names of any insurance professionals or companies—an agent or company who sold the deceased auto or home insurance might be aware of a life insurance policy.

2. Contact financial advisors.

Attorneys, accountants, investment advisors, bankers, business insurance agents/brokers,
and other financial professionals, current or former, may know the deceased's life insurance policies.

3. Examine applications for life insurance

Each policy's application is attached to that policy. So, suppose you can locate any
deceased's life insurance policies and review the application. In that case, it will contain a list of any other life insurance policies owned by the application.

4. Contact previous employers.

Former employers keep track of previous group policies.

5. Examine your bank statements.

Check if any checks or automated payments to life insurance companies have been issued over the years.

6. Examine your mail.

Look for premium or dividend notices for the year following the policyholder's death.

If a policy has been paid up, there will be no notice of premium payments due; however, the company may still send an annual notice regarding the status of the policy or notice of a dividend.

 

7. Examine your tax returns

Examine the deceased's tax returns for the last two years to see if there is any interest
income or interest expenses paid to life insurance companies.

Life insurance companies pay interest on permanent-policy accumulations and charge interest on policy loans.

 

8. Contact state insurance departments.

Twenty-nine state insurance departments provide free policy search services to residents
who have misplaced their policies.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has a "Life Insurance Company Location System" to assist you in locating state insurance department officials who can assist you in identifying companies that may have written life insurance on the
deceased. Go to the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator to use that service.

9. Check with the Unclaimed Property Office in your state.

Suppose a life insurance company discovers that an insured client has died but cannot
locate the beneficiary. In that case, the death benefit must be turned over to the state where the policy was purchased as "unclaimed property."

If you know (or can guess) where the policy was purchased, you can contact the state comptroller's office to see if there is any unclaimed money from the deceased's life insurance policies. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators is an excellent place to start.

10. Contact a private investigator.

Several private companies will assist you in searching for a lost life insurance policy
for a fee. They will contact insurance companies on your behalf to determine whether the deceased was covered by insurance. This service is frequently provided via a website.

 

11. Could the policy have started in Canada?

If you believe the policy was purchased in Canada, you can get more information from the
Canadian Ombudservice for Life and Health Insurance.

12. Look through the MIB database.

There is no central database of policy documents, but there is one of all individual life
insurance applications processed since January 1, 1996. (Note: There is a fee

for each search, and many searches fail; a random sample of investigations yielded only one match out of every four attempts.)