How to Find Out if Your Loved One Had Life Insurance

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Having a life insurance policy to help your loved ones in the event of your death is a great thing.

Forgetting to tell anyone about it is not.

Unfortunately, many valid life insurance policies do not get paid out simply because they are never claimed for. It is not the insurer’s responsibility to regularly check on the status of the people they insure, and even when the payments stop coming in, it is not a sign that the insured person has passed away, as there are many other legitimate reasons for a policy lapsing in that way.

Can you find out if someone has life insurance?

If you are administering someone’s estate after their death, then there are a few things that you can do to find out if someone had life insurance in the UK and there’s no mention of it in the will.

Check their bank account statements

This is the easiest way to find out the name of the insurance company. Life insurance payments are monthly and in most circumstances, they are only valid if regular payments have been ongoing – there should be a payment every month right up to date.

Contact the insurer with the name of the deceased – all life insurance companies in the UK will be happy to help you. If you can’t work out the company name from the information on the statement, try using the Association of British Insurers to find them.

Some Over 50s and Whole of Life policies continue to be valid even after a final payment has been made, so there is a chance that a policy is in place that doesn’t show up on the bank statement, especially if the deceased was very elderly. In these cases, you may need to resort to older bank statements (from before the deceased was 80) or other methods.

The Unclaimed Assets Register (UAR)

Life insurance policies, along with other financial assets, will be available through the Unclaimed Assets Register.

If you use the UAR, you will need to make an account, and you will be charged for each search (currently at £25 per search). Unfortunately, there is no way of finding a lost insurance policy for free through this system, and the fee must be paid irrespective of whether the search is successful or not.

Can anyone find insurance policies for the deceased?

Up to a point, anyone can make an enquiry, but only the person legally entitled to administer the estate will be able to take that enquiry further. A copy of the death certificate will need to be provided before any life insurance policy can be claimed.

In some cases, there will be named beneficiaries on the life insurance policy or it will have been placed in trust. In others, the money will go to the overall estate to be administered accordingly.

What happens to unclaimed life insurance?

There is technically no time frame for claiming life insurance – even though it is typically done within a few weeks of the death. If you discover a valid policy some time later, it is still worth contacting the insurer.

What information will I need to claim life insurance?

The insurance company will want to know:

• The name of the deceased
• The cause of death (detailed on the death certificate)
• The life assurance policy number
• Your relationship to the deceased

Many insurance companies have an online form for starting the claim, allowing you to do so in your own time without having to face potentially upsetting questions. Remember though, that all the insurers will have professional and sympathetic team members on hand to deal with your claim.

Advice from Quick Quote Protect

To avoid any issues upon your death, it is very important that you leave a will. Include clear instructions regarding your life insurance in the will as well as making sure your loved ones know of the policy and who it is with. It never does any good to hide documentation away from where it is easily recovered upon your death.

If you believe your loved one got their policy through us and you cannot find out the name of the insurer, please give us a call today and we will do everything we can to help.