What if you can’t find the policy?
Descriptive tags: How to collect death benefits if the policy is lost, Collecting death benefits if policy is lost, Collecting death benefits if policy is lost
If you are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, you will be entitled to receive the death benefits of the policy on the death of the insured. You can do this by contacting the insurance company, submitting your application and providing proof of death and proof of your identity. Once you submit your application form, most insurance companies will pay out in anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on whether there is suspicion of fraud. In most cases, you will quickly have the money that you need to finance the funeral arrangements and take care of matters very quickly.
It is most important that you have the policy with you if you want to claim the death benefit. Just knowing that a policy exists and you are the beneficiary is not enough. You will need to get hold of the policy. In most cases, this shouldn’t be a problem. However some times, the life insurance policy is not where it was supposed to be. It may have been taken out of the files for a quick look-over and misplaced at some point. Simply put, you are unable to find the policy itself. Relax. This does not mean that you have to give up the death benefits. It is most likely that you will at least know the name of the insurance company. You can then easily get in touch with the insurance agent who will verify that a policy existed and help you get the funds that you need. If you do not know the name of the company, its not the end of the world. There are other ways to get the required details. The easiest method is to look for cancelled checks with the name of the insurance company. You will know the name of the insurance company and take it from there. You can also look for automatic withdrawals from the checking account of the deceased. If you are somehow unable to get the name of the insurance company, you can wait for the bill to come in from an insurance company looking for their regular payment. If you haven’t informed the insurance company that the insured is no more, the insurance company will presume that the insured is alive and will send the bill for the regular premium. Once you get the bill, you can easily get in touch with the insurance company. The bill will also have other details like the policy number.
If you cannot find the policy or policy details despite your best efforts, you could hire the services of a private investigator to help you. With luck, you may get the required information and you will be able to collect on the death benefits.
