Is There Any Way To Find Out If A Deceased Parent Had A Life Insurance Policy?

I don’t know the name of the insurance company and I can not locate payments made by parent.

  1. 406 POINTS
    Coby Higgins
    Licensed Independent Agent, Texas Insurance Alliance, Little Elm, TX
    If they were working, check with employer. May have had insurance through employer group plan. Check with their bank too. Go through old tax returns to look for interest 1099's. Also check unclaimed property office with the state they lived in. Also, get their bank to give you any old bank statements. Could also have policy in a safety deposit box. Banks will generally let you in to look for insurance/will. There's no national database that will help you find a life insurance policy. There's billions of dollars in unclaimed policies unfortunately. Check with relatives too and see if they know anything or if they had an agent. I set up an emergency response system so that relatives/friends/neighbors know that they bought a policy from me and have my information so if something happens I can get a check to the family. Sorry you have to go hunting for this. And if you aren't the executor of their will, check with the executor and see if they have any knowledge of assets.
    Answered on April 5, 2017
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  2. 21750 POINTS
    Jim Winkler
    CEO/Owner, Winkler Financial Group, Houston, Texas
    That is a great question. I am sorry for your loss, and I pray that you find comfort in our Lord. On every insurance policy sold, there is an agreement that you sign off on allowing a company called MIB (the Medical Information Bureau) to do a search of your insurance records. MIB acts as a repository for all insurance related claims. Insurers from Geico to Lenscrafters to Met Life use MIB to look at your insurance claim history to help assess the rate on your policy. They also have a department that helps search through their databases for folks that are seeking to know if their loved one had a policy. I think it costs around $75 to initiate the search, but it may be worth the expense. Go to mib.com, and on their home page is a link to "finding a lost policy". You can easily find your way from there. They can look at over 400 companies for a trace of your parent's policy.
    Thank you for asking, and again, my sympathies on the loss of your loved one. If you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me, okay? I'll make the time for you. Good luck!
    Answered on April 8, 2017
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  3. 63333 POINTS
    Peggy Mace
    Most of the U.S.
    I, too, extend my sympathy on your loss, and hope that the weeks ahead go smoothly as you figure out his/her finances.

    Coby and Jim gave you some great information! The only thing I can think to add is to contact the agency that sold your parents their car insurance, etc, and see if they may have taken out a policy there. If your parents have siblings, your grandparents may have taken out life insurance on all of them, so you could ask your aunts and uncles.

    Sadly, my experience is that if a policy cannot be found, and no payments made, it usually means that the person dropped the policy before death. I'm not saying that is the case here, but I hope that some older people are reading this:

    If you can no longer afford your life insurance, ask your kids or nieces or nephews if they would like to take it over. Many children are better off financially than their parents are during their retirement years, and would jump at the chance to pick up the policy payments and keep that policy intact. If not, it is a good time to discuss the future, so that everyone is on the same page.
    Answered on April 25, 2017
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  4. 10968 POINTS
    Tim Wilhoit
    Owner, Your Friend 4 Life, Brentwood TN
    My condolences on your loss. I agree with my colleagues with some great ideas. There are also a few websites to try as well.

    If you believe your parent had life insurance and exhausted the above ideas you can try your local Department of Insurance. The NAIC website http://naic.org/state_web_map.htm has that information. If you believe a claim may have been paid you can try these 2 websites to see if their is unclaimed death benefits http://missingmoney.com/ or http://unclaimed.org/ .

    One more fee pay site if all else fails is http://www.mib.com/lost_life_insurance_howto.html . Please understand the quoted odds of finding a lost policy is roughly 600 to 1, but if you are confident your parent had life insurance, it is certainly worth trying.

    Best of luck and sorry for your loss.
    Answered on August 6, 2017
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