4/29/2023 0 Comments Abandoned life insurance policies![]() Think you might be a beneficiary on a forgotten policy? Follow these steps: How to find out if a life insurance company owes you money This Is What Happens to Your Debts After You Die “People call in and say they think their mom, dad or spouse may have had a life insurance policy, but they have no idea where to look or who to ask about it.” “It was and still is a question that our consumer protection folks receive often,” says Ben Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Insurance, which has received 3,672 requests to its lost policy locator service since it was launched in October 2013. Still, who wouldn’t want even a teeny-tiny piece of those billions of dollars sitting out there? Insurers also note that the unclaimed benefits make up a sliver of the $600 billion that companies have paid out in the last decade when beneficiaries did file claims. Twenty states have enacted laws based on the standard, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. ![]() The industry now supports a national standard to require life insurers to use new technologies to identify policyholders who have died and whose beneficiaries have not made claims. Traditionally, insurers have waited until someone files a life insurance claim, which then triggers a payment, says Steven Weisbart, senior vice president and chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute. Life insurers haven’t admitted any wrongdoing. So far, states have made settlement agreements with 25 life insurance companies, and they’re investigating others. That meant insurers held onto payout money longer - or never paid at all. ![]() (The Death Master File is a list of deceased people who were collecting Social Security retirement or disability income.) But insurers weren’t using the database to search for life insurance policyholders who died. Their beef: Life insurance companies used information from the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File to stop making payments when annuity owners died, which meant insurers could stop sending annuity payments to customers.
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