During the past two months, two of my friends passed away from terminal illnesses – leaving young spouses and children behind. Despite being incredibly sad, the reality is that having a terminal illness tends to lend itself to some planning for the survivors’ futures. Knowledge that there is a life insurance policy, the name of the company that issued it and where it can be found are some of the elements of “planning” that I am talking about.
What about situations where there isn’t any knowledge about the whereabouts of the life insurance policy or the name of the issuing company? Tracking down policies can be time-consuming.
The good news is that the Missouri Department of Insurance just created the Life Policy Locator Service to help consumers find lost life insurance policies and annuity contracts bought in Missouri. Under the new service, the DOI will collect information from people searching for a deceased person’s life insurance policy. Those who think that they are beneficiaries, as well as executors and other legal representatives, can file a search request form with the DOI. The forms should be notarized and include a copy of the original death certificate. Each month, the DOI will send that information electronically to licensed life insurers in Missouri.
Insurance companies will try to locate the policy and will contact the person making the request if a policy is located. If the person making the request is not legally entitled to information about the policy or contract, the insurance company will not make contact with that person. However, the insurance company will begin a search for the beneficiaries named on the policy.
Questions about the Life Policy Locator Service can be asked at 800-726-7390 or check http://insurance.mo.gov/consumers/life-annuities/lifepolicylocator.php
When I read about this, I thought what a great idea it is. Hopefully, other states that do not have a similar process in place will follow suit.
