How to track unclaimed life insurance

We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.

Our content is backed by Coverage.com, LLC, a licensed insurance producer (NPN: 19966249). Coverage.com services are only available in states where it is licensed . Coverage.com may not offer insurance coverage in all states or scenarios. All insurance products are governed by the terms in the applicable insurance policy, and all related decisions (such as approval for coverage, premiums, commissions and fees) and policy obligations are the sole responsibility of the underwriting insurer. The information on this site does not modify any insurance policy terms in any way.

How We Make Money

The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.

On This Page Jump to

Consumer investigating unclaimed life insurance from his kitchen

8 min read Published July 17, 2023

Checkmark Expert verified

Bankrate logo

How is this page expert verified?

At Bankrate, we take the accuracy of our content seriously.

“Expert verified” means that our Financial Review Board thoroughly evaluated the article for accuracy and clarity. The Review Board comprises a panel of financial experts whose objective is to ensure that our content is always objective and balanced.

Their reviews hold us accountable for publishing high-quality and trustworthy content.

Written by

Mandy Sleight

Contributor, Personal Finance

Mandy Sleight has been a licensed insurance agent since 2005. She has three years of experience writing for insurance websites such as Bankrate, MoneyGeek and The Simple Dollar. Mandy writes about auto, homeowners, renters, life insurance, disability and supplemental insurance products.

Edited by

Mariah Posey

Editor, Insurance 3 Years of experience

Mariah Posey is an auto, home and life insurance editor and writer for Bankrate.com. She aims to make the insurance journey as convenient as possible by simplifying industry lingo and implementing thoughtful content design to provide readers clear answers to their questions.

Reviewed by

Mark Friedlander

Director of corporate communications, Insurance Information Institute

Mark Friedlander is director of corporate communications at III, a nonprofit organization focused on providing consumers with a better understanding of insurance.

Bankrate logo

The Bankrate promise

At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money . This content is powered by HomeInsurance.com (NPN: 8781838). For more information, please see our Insurance Disclosure .

Bankrate logo

The Bankrate promise

Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.

Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money.

Bankrate logo

Editorial integrity

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.

Key Principles

We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.

Editorial Independence

Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.

Bankrate logo

How we make money

You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.

We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.

Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.

Bankrate logo

Insurance Disclosure

This content is powered by HomeInsurance.com, a licensed insurance producer (NPN: 8781838) and a corporate affiliate of Bankrate.com. HomeInsurance.com LLC services are only available in states where it is licensed and insurance coverage through HomeInsurance.com may not be available in all states. All insurance products are governed by the terms in the applicable insurance policy, and all related decisions (such as approval for coverage, premiums, commissions and fees) and policy obligations are the sole responsibility of the underwriting insurer. The information on this site does not modify any insurance policy terms in any way.

Life insurance provides financial protection for loved ones after the policyholder passes away, but it only helps if collected. Benefits sometimes go unclaimed. In general, life insurance companies perform proactive searches to find and inform beneficiaries who are named in a matured policy. However, this isn’t always the case, and sometimes the search isn’t successful. If you suspect you may have unclaimed life insurance benefits slated for you, you may be able to track down a policy and potentially collect what’s been left to you. Bankrate explains how.

Key takeaways

How to find an unclaimed life insurance policy

Many people take time to set up life insurance policies to ensure their loved ones are cared for after their passing, in which case a common question might be, “How do I find out if I am a beneficiary on a life insurance policy?” If you suspect a relative who passed away may indeed have purchased a policy and named you as the beneficiary, try these steps to conduct an unclaimed or lost life insurance policy search. You will need the full legal name of your relative, and it helps to have their date of birth, Social Security number and any former addresses. Follow these steps to maximize your chances of finding an unclaimed life insurance policy.

Search for insurance policy paperwork

You may be able to find insurance policy paperwork — including premium payment receipts or bank statements showing an automatic deduction — more easily if the person passed away recently. Also check address books or electronic devices (if you have access) for any insurance-related transactions or communication.

If you’re the executor of the deceased’s estate, check through safe-deposit boxes and personal files that may store the paperwork. You could also visit the bank of the deceased to request paper statements if you have power of attorney. This will allow you to see who premiums were paid to if you don’t have access to the deceased’s online bank account.

Turn to a missing policy locator

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Insurance Policy Locator Service and similar services allow consumers who believe they are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy to submit a life insurance policy search by name and request to have insurers check their files. These systems can serve as an unclaimed life insurance database for individuals that need a starting point for retrieving policy information.

Search for the insurance company

If you find evidence of a policy and can identify the insurance company, most of your work is done. Beneficiaries who can’t locate the insurance company listed on a policy should contact their state’s insurance department.

If you know the insurance company, follow its steps to file a claim. Provided you give all the information and the insurance company approves your claim, the company will typically provide payment in a timely manner.

Make sure you’re looking in the correct state

You need to know where the policy was purchased. The state where the decedent passed may not be the same state they purchased the life insurance policy. Check in any prior states the person may have lived in to find an unclaimed life insurance policy. Once you’ve located the correct state, you can use its Department of Insurance (DOI) site, which contains tools to search for insurance policies.

If the insurance company went out of business, the DOI should have records of what happened to the policies.

Check with rating services

If you’ve found the insurance policy’s paperwork, but can’t seem to find the insurance company itself to track an unclaimed life insurance policy, you may want to check with rating services to find it. An insurance rating agency, such as AM Best, could help you track insurers, including those that are defunct.

Search for a financial connection

A financial connection would be a professional who handled the deceased’s finances. This could be an accountant, financial planner or insurance agent. A professional working in financial services would likely have knowledge of a life insurance policy, and may even have a copy of it proving you’re the beneficiary and provide policy details. You’ll likely have to provide information to verify your identity or prove that you’re the executor or have power of attorney for the deceased before the financial professional releases the information.

Search unclaimed property files

MissingMoney.com, a database endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), allows you to search for unclaimed property in most states. The NAUPA maintains a web tool for searching through unclaimed matured life insurance policies. To start the search, all you need is the name, city and state where the deceased lived and you can conduct the research online.

Contact the deceased’s former employers

Most life insurance policies purchased through employers are term policies that provide coverage only during the time of employment, but sometimes an individual will continue the policy after leaving the company. You might want to check with former employers, labor unions or professional associations to see which company the deceased had life insurance with so you can contact the insurer directly.

Many companies won’t provide specific information pertaining to employees outside of when they worked there and their position, so asking what life insurance company they use is a way around this.

Pay for a search of the MIB database

The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) is a database created by life insurance companies to exchange confidential coded data about medical conditions and risk factors. It may also help you track down a life insurance policy which names you as the beneficiary. Although an MIB database search costs $75, it may be money well spent if you are certain there is an unclaimed life insurance policy that names you as a beneficiary.

Once you find the insurance company, contact them to see if the policy is still active. If it is, the insurer has steps you can follow to file a claim.

The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act

Although not available in every state, the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act aims to help fill the knowledge gap between life insurance companies and the government’s official documentation of deceased citizens. It requires that life insurance companies compare their records to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Death Master File to ensure that the company is aware of any policyholders that may be deceased. This act aims to encourage the proper transition of unclaimed life insurance benefits into the hands of the appropriate beneficiaries. If beneficiaries cannot be found after a set number of years, the insurance company must transfer any unclaimed benefits to the state’s department of revenue as unclaimed property.

This act can potentially help beneficiaries of life insurance policies by reducing the number of unclaimed policies and accelerating the process of discovering when a life insurance policy has matured. Often, notifying a life insurance company has fallen upon the deceased’s family. This act allows for an alternative that puts the onus of information back upon the insurer. With the SSA’s Death Master file for comparison, insurers are less likely to remain unaware of the death of a policyholder.

This law is not in effect in all states, as some have yet to sign it into state law. However, even in states where this act is not signed into law, many insurers have chosen to comply with its requirements. Check your state regulations on the DOI website to see if your state has passed this act.

How to prevent unclaimed life insurance policies

While the deceased cannot provide you with information on their insurance policies, you can take actions to prevent the same from occurring in the future.

If you are covered by life insurance, tell your loved ones that you have a policy so they don’t miss out on your death benefit if you pass away. Provide details about the policy, like the insurance company, policy number and coverage amount. Give your insurance company as much detail as possible about your beneficiaries, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers, to make it easier for the insurance company to find them. It’s also a good idea to store life insurance paperwork in a secure place so family members have access to it when they need it.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to unclaimed life insurance money?

After a certain number of years as defined by each state, insurance companies must turn over unclaimed life insurance money to the state government. Some states are placing pressure on life insurance companies to pay out unclaimed death benefits. Because of this, insurance companies routinely use Social Security data to check to see if policyholders are still alive. When they find out that an insured passed away, they’ll do research to try to find the beneficiaries.

How long does a beneficiary have to claim a life insurance policy?

How long a beneficiary has to claim a life insurance policy may vary by state or life insurance company. Once a claim is filed, the insurance company must review the claim within 30 days in most states. By the end of the 30 days, the insurer will either have to ask for more information, or approve or deny the beneficiary claim.

How do I find out if a life insurance policy is valid?

To find out if a life insurance policy is valid, you can check with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Using the NAIC Life Policy Locator, you can submit a request with the legal name, date of birth, Social Security number and date of death for the deceased person to find a life insurance policy or annuity.

Written by Mandy Sleight

Arrow Right Contributor, Personal Finance

Mandy Sleight has been a licensed insurance agent since 2005. She has three years of experience writing for insurance websites such as Bankrate, MoneyGeek and The Simple Dollar. Mandy writes about auto, homeowners, renters, life insurance, disability and supplemental insurance products.