If you are looking after the affairs (the estate) of a deceased relative you may not know whether they had any life insurance. Unfortunately there is no central place that holds details of all life insurance policies, so finding out whether there was a life insurance policy is going to take a bit of detective work. These are some ideas of where to start:
Find all the areas in the deceased persons home where paperwork was stored. Go through all of this paperwork in a very detailed way looking for:
1. Insurance policy documents or evidence of contact with insurance companies (not just life insurance). If you find details of home or health insurance for the deceased it is possible that they bought life insurance from the same company.
2. Bank and credit card statements and cheque books - sort these into different accounts and scan them for policy premium payments.
3. Letters or business cards from insurance agents. Again, if the deceased had contact with an insurance agent it is possible that they bought life insurance from them.
Follow up with all of the insurance companies/agents located above to find out whether the deceased had arranged life insurance with them. In letters, specify the deceased full name, date of birth, and last known address (if they moved frequently it might be worth including recent addresses as well).
If the above doesn’t work then there are a few other places to try.
1. Did your deceased relative have a safety deposit box that they kept documents in? Try to find any likely looking keys, scan credit and bank statements for payments to companies offering this service and approach local companies with the deceased full name and address.
2. Check the deceased medical records to find out whether they had had a medical exam for insurance purposes. The records should show which company requested the medical.
Tags: find life insurance, Life Insurance, locate life insurance
August 25th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
My sist lost her husband about 6 years ago and did not know or even think about potential insurance he may have had on his credit cards. How can she find out about this? Has the Statute of Limitations run out?
Thank, Carol
August 26th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Hi Carol
I would first check on the credit card statements (if your sister still has them) to see if there is any evidence of a life insurance premium being charged.
Secondly write to the card companies giving as much detail as possible (e.g. his full name, address when he died, account number if known) and ask if his balances were covered by any insurance.
Let me know what happens.
Neil
February 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Hi Neil
Looking for new company that took over The United Friendly Insurance Company.
I have a couple of old polices dated 06 04 55 one for my father and ome for my mother.
Policy numbers L 3535424 and L 3535422
Kind regards. Chris
February 9th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Hi Chris
I found these details from an internet search – hope they are useful:
April 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
hi my name is Kathleen Townsend nee Jarvis i took out a policy for my mum when i was young in1967 0r 68 her name was Doris Jarvis my mother has since died and i cant find the policy the company then was united friendly in leeds.i think they have changed names but dont know how to go about finding, i think they are now based in scotland .is there anyway i can find out anything ton do with the policy > i put it away in a safe place but can not find it thankyou for any information you can give me
April 12th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Hi Kathy
United Friendly is now part of Royal London as per the following details:
“They are now (since 2000) part of the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Ltd.
55 Gracechurch St is the head office, but that’s not the best place to contact in this case.
Contact details etc can be found at
http://www.royal-london.co.uk/existing/i…
Customer Services,
Royal London,
Royal London House,
Alderley Road,
WILMSLOW,
SK9 1PF
Tel: 08450 502020″
Probably best that you contact them and provide as many details as possible – they should be able to help.
Regards,
Neil