Life Insurance Locator Services

For those that have recently experienced the loss of a loved one, one of the most overwhelming tasks facing you is gathering together information about your friend or family member's assets. This post spotlights two tools you can use to determine if the deceased individual held a life insurance policy or annuity:

1. The Life Insurance Policy Locator Service is available through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and is a good place to start for someone that might have lived in a number of different states throughout their life. You do have to sign up and create a new account in order to use the search feature. When you submit a request through the site, the NAIC will ask participating member companies to search their records for both life insurance policies and annuity contracts in the deceased individual's name. If there is a "hit", then you, the person inquiring as to the existence of a policy, will be notified if you are the named beneficiary on the policy or are otherwise authorized to receive information about the deceased individual's assets. Because NAIC is a national organization, it's search includes insurance providers from all 50 states.

2. A similar query tool is available through the North Carolina Department of Insurance. Those seeking information about the possible existence of a North Carolina-issued policy need to submit a notarized request form and original copy of the deceased individual's death certificate. In turn, the NCDOI will send the information to ALL North Carolina licensed insurance companies to search for a match. If a policy is located, the insurance company will reach out to the named beneficiaries.