Is There a Way to Find a Deceased Person Missing Life Insurance Policy?

The sudden death of a spouse is devastating, and the devastation can be magnified when financial pressures abound. In families which rely on the deceased spouse’s income for meeting financial obligations, having one income suddenly disappear presents a hardship.

That’s why insurance is so important. It will replace your income, cover living expenses, and pay outstanding debt, which will allow your family to focus on grieving and healing rather than stressing about how they are going to make ends meet.

Ideally, we all should have all our important documents in order so that they can be easily accessed in the case of an emergency. But that is not always the case. Sometimes family members unable to locate your important personal information, financial papers, estate planning documents and insurance policies.

So is there a way to locate a missing insurance policy?

Often one of the best ways to determine whether a deceased person had life insurance is to check bank statements for payments to life insurance companies. Checking with the benefits department of the deceased person’s former employer is also a good place to start.

Additionally, the Texas Department of Insurance has a Life Insurance Policy Locator that can help you find a missing life insurance policy or annuity.

To get the process started, you would fill out a Consumer Request Form that contains basic information about the deceased person whose policy is missing. Every month, the Texas Department of Insurance gives these Forms to companies which participate in their service. If a company locates the name of the deceased person in their records, they will contact you. The process typically takes about 90 days.

It’s important to note that not everyone is entitled to receive information regarding insurance. Those who are entitled to get information about a policy include the legal representative of the deceased person’s estate and the policy’s beneficiary.