How to Trace Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits?

Life insurance benefits (especially the death benefit that is included in a life insurance policy) are meant to be given to the beneficiaries of a policyholder. This is all good, but what if a person is not aware that they are a beneficiary? Or what if they are aware, but had lost contact with the policyholder before they passed away? How will they then claim the insurance benefits?

This article will talk about the different ways by which a person can claim their share of insurance benefits. The article will also tackle the topic of what to do if the insurance claim has already lapsed.

Being a beneficiary

If you have been listed as one of the beneficiaries of an insurance policy, you can expect to receive a substantial amount of money when your family member passes away. The grief you will feel because of the loss of the family member will be great, but at least they were thoughtful enough to leave a part of their money to you to remember them by.

Why are there unclaimed insurance benefits?

There are over hundreds of thousands of insurance benefits that go unclaimed. There are many reasons as to why this happens. We have made a shortlist as to why this sometimes happens.

You have lost contact with your family member

You may not have seen or communicated with this family member in many years. In the duration of this time, they may have decided to list you as a benefit in their life insurance policy and failed to tell you about it. 

You are unaware that you were listed as a beneficiary in the policy

There is a good chance that you were never told that they had put your name down as a beneficiary for their life insurance policy.

Most of the time, insurance benefits that go unclaimed are because the policyholder and the beneficiary are not directly related. If the policyholder is a parent, and their beneficiary is a child, they will be most likely aware of being a beneficiary.

Different methods to deal with unclaimed life insurance benefits

Depending on the country, insurance companies have different ways and means to try and reconcile their records and give the life insurance benefits to whom they are due.

Singaporean method

Life insurance companies in Singapore publish the names and other details of the policy in the hopes of reaching out to the beneficiary.

American/US method

Authorities in the United States take the information collected through life insurance companies and compare them to a master file that lists all the deaths that have taken place. These authorities work together with life insurance providers to get in touch with the beneficiaries linked to insurance policies regarding the unclaimed benefits.

French method

In France, the life insurance policies and their records are held for a maximum of ten years by the insurance company. If they are unable to get in touch with the beneficiaries, the information about the policy will then be passed on to a special governing body called the Caisee des depots et consignations. This office will be the one to try to track down the illusive beneficiaries. They will also be given ten years to do this. If after ten years, they are still unable to find the beneficiaries, the money will then be transferred to the French government.

What you can do

If you feel that you have a family member that may have listed you as a beneficiary on their insurance policy, try to get in touch with the direct family of that family member. They will be the best ones to give you information about any unclaimed benefits you may be entitled to.