How do i find out if theres an insurance policy to claim?

Question

Theres rumors that my father(now deceased) left an insurance policy one for me and another for my sister. i dont know the insurance company or when he may have signed anything. how would I go about finding some of this info out?

Answer 1

Well, the first step, is to become executor of his estate.  

In other words, if you're looking for some kind of central database you can look it up, there's no such horse.

After you're legally appointed executor by a judge, you go to his old banks, to get copies of checking account statements, to see what company he was paying.   You get access to his safety deposit box.  You pay a $75 fee to MIB's application finder, and they'll give you a list of companies that received an APPLICATION on him, but only for the past ten years.  You go to his insurance agent, accountant, and attorney, and look that up.  You get a copy of his will (maybe it was already filed in probate court?) and see if it mentions life insurance.

But if someone else is ALREADY executor of his estate, you're not going to be able to do any of this.

70% of people who die in the US, die without active life insurance in force.  Most people WITH life insurance, do not have multiple policies.  Also, it would be HIGHLY unlikely for him to leave the major children as beneficiaries, and cut out a spouse.  

Bottom line - you'll have to press the people who told you the 'rumors' for more info to track it down - but dollars to donuts, they are just guessing and have no real info.

Answer 2

You need to start looking through all the papers in the house.  You need to find the name of the company and the policy number.

Answer 3

This is just about everything I can think of to find a lost policy

Search through all the papers and documents in their house if they have a policy you should come across it.

You may have to go through all the old checkbooks to find when the premium was last paid. This might mean looking back as far as one year.

Check old credit card statements. Your relative may have paid premiums by credit card.

Ask your relative's lawyer, banker, or accountant.

Track down your relative's auto or home insurance agents.

If they were employed they may have some coverage with the employer.  If retired check with his last employer.

Check with thier health insurance carrier

Wait until the next premium notice is sent.

You can also have the Medical Information Bureau conduct a policy search for $75.

http://www.mib.com/html/lost-life-insura...

Answer 4

This can be a very hard task to do.  There is no central insurance database to check and insurance companies won't report the benefits as unclaimed until the insured would have reached the limiting age, usually 100 years old, now 120 in many cases.  

In my state,  the state treasury department handles unclaimed insurance proceeds.  I'm not sure if its the same in every state. You can check there for unclaimed property.

other options would be to do some research with family members. Many times families bought insurance from the same agent or company.

You can find out if he belonged to any organizations such as the knights of columbus or something like that as they offer insurance to their memebers.

As a last resort you can just start calling Insurance companies with his information usually a social security number and birth date should be enough to see if there is a policy on him.... this could take some time.