How would i find out if my mom(single parent) had Life insurance?

Question

I lived with my uncle for 5 years after her death and he claimed she left no money behind or anything, which leaves me barely 18 and not much go off of right now...its not so much about the money but more about honesty. My uncle has money but hes greedy with it, to points beyond extent. Such as this situation i'm dealing with right now. So how would i find out if she really did or didnt have life insurance?

Answer 1

She may have had a life policy, and could have possibly made your uncle the beneficiary, to provide for your needs as you were growing up.

If this were the case, the proceeds should have been assigned to a trust fund to be used only for your well-being , rather than to a named beneficiary. A trust fund keeps honest people honest.

After 5 years, there is probably no way to find any information, unless your mom had a will, which would be filed in the county courthouse records.

But even a will would not direct the proceeds of a life insurance policy, unless it was stipulated in the will.

You might want to check with the Medical Information Bureau (MIB), to see if there was medical information from applying to a life insurance company. I'm not so sure this will even work. Even if it did, they wouldn't be able to tell you who the beneficiary was.

Log onto MIB.com

Hope it helps.

Best wishes, and God bless.

Answer 2

There is no definitive or conclusive way to determine whether a person had life insurance, because each insurance company keeps separate records and there is no central database.  However, the following may (or may not) be helpful:

1. Find out from the government of the place where she died whether a copy of her death certificate was requested by an insurance company.  If so, contact that insurance company and ask whether she had life insurance at that company.

2. Find out from the Medical Information Bureau whether she applied for life insurance recently enough for the records to still be in their files.  Note that (1) a negative response still leaves open the possibility that she had life insurance, but the application was made too long ago for the M.I.B. to still have a record, and (2) a positive response does not mean that the application was approved or that she still had the insurance when she died; you have to verify that with the individual insurance company.

3. Apply to the Social Security Administration, http:www.ssa.gov, for "Survivors Benefits".  This is money that you receive from the government for having a parent die, whether or not the parent has life insurance.

4. Check the records of the probate court to determine whether she had money when she died.

Answer 3

Speak to a lawyer.  At your age, and with little or finances, I'm sure you could speak to a legal aid/free lawyer.

But it's not uncommon for people these days to have no life insurance, especially if she died at a young age.

Answer 4

What makes you think she did, or are you just "fishing"?  The only way to find any such policy would be in her personal records.