How To Find an Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy

If one of your loved ones recently passed away and you believe they may have been covered by a life insurance policy, you may be able to find out if you are eligible for a death benefit by looking through their personal documents, contacting others who may have known whether they had a policy or using an online tool that allows you to search for outstanding life insurance coverage.

Read on to learn more about unclaimed life insurance including what can contribute to a lost life insurance policy and what happens to unclaimed life insurance policies after a few years.

What Is Unclaimed Life Insurance?

Unclaimed life insurance refers to death benefits from a life insurance policy that have not yet been claimed by the primary or contingent beneficiaries of that policy since the death of the covered individual. From 2016 to 2023, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) helped consumers collect over $6 billion worth of life insurance and annuity benefits that had previously gone unclaimed.^[1]

Why Does Life Insurance Money Go Unclaimed?

Some of the main causes of unclaimed life insurance money include the following:^[2]

1. The insurance company and policyholder have lost contact with each other, potentially because the insured moved and did not give the insurer their new mailing address
2. No one files a claim after the insured’s death and the insurer does not realize that the policyholder has died because their premium payments are still being covered by the cash value from their permanent life insurance policy
3. The intended beneficiaries of the policy were not specifically named or the insurer is otherwise unable to locate them
4. Relatives of the departed don’t know about the life insurance policy at all or don’t know that they were designated as beneficiaries who are eligible to submit a claim for death benefits
5. Beneficiaries cannot find the insurance company because it has relocated or changed its name

What Happens to Unclaimed Life Insurance if It Remains Unclaimed?

Death benefits from life insurance policies that have not been claimed are eventually turned over to the government of the state that the insured most recently lived in. The state government usually collects these death benefits after three years but this can vary from state to state.^[3]

How To Find an Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy

Taking the following steps can help you uncover whether there is a life insurance policy with unclaimed benefits that you are eligible to receive.

Ask Your Loved One’s Former Employer

Many employers offer life insurance coverage to their full-time employees, so you may be able to find out if your loved one was covered by reaching out to their former employer’s human resources department. Of course, the deceased’s employer may not be able to help you find out if they separately purchased a supplemental life insurance policy.

Contact Professionals Who May Know About the Deceased’s Coverage

If you know that your family member regularly did business with an accountant, financial adviser, lawyer, insurance agent or some other professional who may have known whether they purchased life insurance, then you could reach out to that professional to see if they have any information about a potential policy.

Check the Insured’s Records

Going through your lost loved one’s personal records may reveal whether they were covered by an active life insurance policy. For example, you could find bank statements showing that money was automatically drafted and sent to a life insurance company, mail from a life insurer giving the insured an update on the status of their policy or tax returns indicating that they withdrew cash value from a whole life insurance policy and reported it as income.^[4]

Search an Online Database

Every state operates an online database that allows residents to search for unclaimed property they are owed such as life insurance benefits and obtain information on how to receive it. You can easily locate your state’s unclaimed life insurance database as well as databases for various American territories and Canadian provinces through the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) website.^[5]

In addition, the NAUPA sponsors MissingMoney.com, which draws from state databases and allows you to search for unclaimed property from multiple states at once. Notably, the NAUPA provides all of these services to consumers at no charge.^[5]

Hire a Private Company To Search for Evidence of Coverage

If all else fails, you can turn to MIB or some other private company that may be able to help you discover whether your family member previously submitted a life insurance application. However, you should note that these companies may not be able to confirm whether your family member was approved for a life insurance policy and you will have to pay for their services.^[4]

How Do I Know if I Have an Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy?

The NAIC operates a free-to-use online tool known as the Life Insurance Policy Locator, which anyone can use to find out if they are the beneficiary of an outstanding life insurance policy. If you are found to be the beneficiary of unclaimed benefits, then you will need to file an insurance claim with the carrier that underwrote the policy and produce a death certificate. Keep in mind that it often takes 90 business days or more to process requests and you won’t be contacted if you are not found to be eligible for any outstanding death benefits.^[1]

Does Life Insurance Expire if It’s Not Claimed?

While life insurance does not explicitly expire if the death benefit isn’t claimed, beneficiaries will have to go through the state rather than the insurer to claim their benefits after the insurance company has handed the unclaimed policy over to the government.^[3]

It’s worth noting that, as of 2022, 33 states have enacted Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Acts that require life insurance companies to check the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File for policyholder deaths twice per year.^[3]

As a result, it’s possible that an insurer will find out about the insured’s death and contact you to give you your benefits within six months of the death even if you don’t file a claim.

Are There Ways To Prevent a Lost or Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy?

The simplest way to prevent life insurance payouts from going unclaimed is to let your family members know when you have added them as beneficiaries to a life insurance policy and make sure they have access to all of the information they will need to file a claim after you die.^[2]

Other steps you can take to keep your premiums from going to waste include informing your insurer whenever your address or contact information changes, taking note when the life insurance company’s address or contact information changes and giving your insurer specific details it can use to locate your beneficiaries once you pass away.^[2]