Joe R. emailed us eager to find out about discovering a misplaced life insurance coverage coverage.
“Once I was a preschooler in Indiana, my mother and father purchased particular person life insurance coverage insurance policies for my two brothers and me. I believe the insurance policies had annual premiums that had been paid for a selected variety of years as required by the corporate. I have no idea the place the paper copies of the insurance policies are, nor do I do know the corporate that issued them. One brother has since handed away. How do I’m going about discovering insurance policies that had been issued over 60 years in the past? Thanks. –Ben R.”
Finding data from that way back with so little to go on can definitely be a tedious activity. It could flip right into a little bit of a wild goose chase, however hopefully, it received’t be too troublesome for you. There are a number of methods of discovering previous life insurance coverage insurance policies.
In case it wasn’t apparent, I counsel going by way of any previous paperwork that your mother and father have or left behind. This contains:
- Random paper information (all of us have them!)
- Tax data
- Financial institution statements
These can all comprise clues about life insurance coverage insurance policies your mother and father might have owned.
Nonetheless, even in case you don’t discover the precise coverage you might discover proof of different insurance coverage insurance policies that your mother and father had. This can be useful as a result of your mother and father might have bought the life insurance coverage insurance policies by way of the identical firm. You’ll be able to contact the insurers and ask.
In the event you can’t discover any proof of the insurance policies in your mother and father’ information, attempt speaking to any monetary professionals or establishments that your mother and father might have labored with over time.
In case your mother and father labored with a monetary planner, accountant, or property legal professional, then they might have a document of the insurance policies or extra data past what you’ve which will enable you to get somewhat nearer to discovering them.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Insurance coverage Commissioners (NAIC) offers a coverage locator service. You’ll be able to submit a request for assist there, and they’ll contact collaborating insurers asking them if they’ve a document of any such insurance policies.
You’ll want private figuring out details about your mother and father together with their Social Safety numbers. In your brother’s insurance policies, you’ll want their data as nicely.
If a coverage is discovered, the insurers might contact beneficiaries to allow them to know.
Every state has its personal insurance coverage division. Some have their very own coverage location companies.
Attempt contacting the state insurance coverage division for the state you lived in when the coverage was issued, or the state from which your mother and father bought the insurance policies.
Within the deceased brother’s case, the payout could also be in a state’s unclaimed property database. If the insurer couldn’t find a coverage proprietor to pay the proceeds to, it might have ended up there. You’ll be able to attempt looking the database in your title, your brothers’ names, and your mother and father’ names to see if something turns up.
After all, this subsequent piece doesn’t enable you to now, however for the subsequent reader, this dialogue highlights the significance of property planning. We frequently assume that property planning is just for the rich, however property planning contains issues like maintaining your data straight so your heirs know what you’ve, the place it’s, and find out how to get it.
Even when the knowledge is in your head, write it down someplace in case one thing occurs to you. It’s a lot simpler to maintain observe of a coverage than to search out one after it’s been misplaced for many years.
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