My mother passed away recently.
We know there were four insurance policies naming each child as beneficiary.
The policies were whole life and were paid in full over fifteen years ago.
We haven’t found the actual policies and would not have bank records old enought to see who was paid.
Is there any place, web or service to help search for unclaimed policies?
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#1 by mbrcatz on ธันวาคม 21, 2009 - 2:06 pm
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Why do you “know” there were these policies?
No, there’s no place, or service, where you can search for unclaimed policies. There’s no central database. They don’t report policies anywhere. You can get on the horn and start making phone calls, but they will only give information to the executor of the estate (and you’ll have to fax over proof).
#2 by Wordpress Autoblog Software on ธันวาคม 21, 2009 - 2:48 pm
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Unfortunately, you will probably have to call individual companies to find out who she had a policy with. You could try calling her Homeowners or Auto insurance agent and you may get lucky and she had it with them. There is no database of who has a policy with which company unfortunately. If you can not find out through her records or through her homeowners/auto insurance agent, then you will need to start calling insurance companies directly.
My condolences to you and good luck!
#3 by Margarita D on ธันวาคม 21, 2009 - 9:09 pm
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Unfortunately there is no easy solution to your case. The only central database that would enable you to find out who she applied for coverage with goes back only 11 years–MIB (Medical Information Bureau) keeps track of all applications for life insurance policies including name of company and amount applied for.
As far as I know if you are the Executor of the Estate you can access bank records to see who she paid but only up to 10 years ago–however, I would double check with her bank maybe they will allow you for an additional fee to check back further. The other alternative is that she might have had a safety deposit box at the bank that you might not be aware of. If you are the Executor you should be able to 1) find out if she had a box and 2) if she did the bank will let you open it.
Other than that one party who answered suggested going to her auto and homeowners agent–he or she might be the same person who wrote the life insurance or might have referred her to the person. Also if she had an accountant or the family attorney try checking with them since she might have given them the information while writing her will or checking tax implications of the life policy. Also the attorney might be able to come up with another way to check assets. Did your mother fill out a Net Worth Statement for anything recently–the information would be listed there.
If there are no other options, you are left with calling companies individually. However, be forewarned the last information I had was that there are over 1800 life insurance companies in the U.S. alone and over a 15 year period many of them might have changed names as a result of mergers, etc. If you have to go this route, first go to the insurance commissioner for your state and have them give you a list of the companies licensed in your state, i.e. not all companies are licensed in every state then with the list start a brainstorming session amongst all of you first to think of the top names of insurance companies on the list–the companies that have the most name recognition and start by calling them, i.e. New York Life, Metropolitan Life, Mutual of Omaha, Sun Life, TransAmerica Life, AIG, Prudential, Northwestern Mutual, Pacific Life, etc.
In short this is a daunting task, my bet is that she had a safety deposit box.
I am very sorry for your loss and wish you all good luck.
#4 by Kari B on ธันวาคม 22, 2009 - 2:41 am
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Check out http://www.mib.com
You have to pay for their service but it is the database that all insurance companies use when someone applies for life insurance. It should be able to give you the names of the companies she applied for life insurance with.
Once you get the name of the company you should be able to contact them to find out about the policy.
Hope this helps.